Derek Brunson calls out Darren Till for BKFC rematch: 'If I have to remind him that I'm better'

Brunson submitted Till in the UFC in 2021. He makes his own bare-knuckle debut against Theo Doukas in Myrtle Beach on 20 November.

Derek Brunson has called out Darren Till for a bare-knuckle rematch, five years after he submitted the Liverpool fighter in the UFC.

"Me and Darren Till were trying to get some hand-to-hand combat, and if I have to remind him that I'm better than him, we'll do that," Brunson said on The Fight Guys podcast.

The pair had already been lined up to box. "We were scheduled to box, six-to-eight months ago in Qatar in Misfits... so we have a little bit of history with that," Brunson said. "In a perfect world, the bell rings, I move in and out, one punch on the chin and the fight's over."

Brunson, 42, makes his BKFC debut against Theo Doukas in the cruiserweight co-main event of BKFC Fight Night Myrtle Beach on Friday 20 November, in the early hours of Saturday UK time. It is his first combat sports appearance since a grappling loss to Rodolfo Vieira in November 2024.

Brunson submitted Till with a rear-naked choke in the third round when they headlined a UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas in September 2021. Till left the UFC after a loss to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 282 and has since put together back-to-back BKFC wins over Aaron Chalmers and Yoel Romero.

BKFC president David Feldman has already named Brunson as an option for Till, saying that if Brunson does well on his debut, "we certainly can talk about" the fight. Brunson told Bloody Elbow in October: "If BKFC want to go back to the UK, let's get these numbers right, me and Darren Till, gloves off, let's do it."

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