Darren Till can't help but think about himself when watching recent MMA fighters getting arrested.
This past month has seen ex-UFC fighters Dustin Poirier and Anthony Smith under the wrong spotlights. Poirier was arrested for public drunkenness. Smith faces three felony charges
: first-degree domestic assault, terroristic threats, and first-degree false imprisonment after an alleged incident with his wife."I'm not going to f*cking judge them," Till said on "The Ariel Helwani Show." "I actually said something about Dustin. I was like, 'Mate, shut up. You haven't even done nothing. I carry on like that every Friday and Saturday, so just shut the f*ck up. Who gives a f*ck?' I get it. Some people are a little bit more embarrassed.
"We have sponsors,
families, stuff like that. Let's put something in place for fighters after fighting because forget retirement funds and pensions. We need a goal, we need an obsession. We need our life to carry on the same after fighting, and I just don't quite feel like it does."
Till has had his run-ins with the law. In April 2019, Till was arrested for "trashing a hotel room and stealing a taxi" in Tenerife, Spain. In July 2022, the former UFC title challenger was arrested in Stockholm for drunk driving. Because of his history, Till fears following an even worse path once he's done with his combat sports career.
"I'm 10 times worse than all these other fighters," Till said. "I've been thinking about it lately, and I've got like three to four years left because I want to make a lot of money, as well. But everyone who's around me – and by the way, I've got a good, solid foundation around me; I've got good friends here and back home – all of them are scared, as well.
"They all know the kind of guy I am. So I do get a bit scared myself for what's to come. I now need to be thinking now for in three years time what to put in place so it doesn't get like that. ... That's not my issue, my problem. The issue is me. The type of guy I am, I'm a million miles, and I'm a hundred times worse than all these other guys."
Till will compete in another bareknuckle fight when he takes on Yoel Romero in the BKFC 94 main event on Sept. 26 at AO Arena in Manchester, England.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Darren Till: Dustin Poirier, Anthony Smith's arrests make me worry about retirement
