BKFC 94 press conference: what went down as Till and Romero met again in Manchester

No repeat of August's marathon stare-down, a promise of violence from Darren Till, a shrug at Tommy Fury, and respect from Yoel Romero before Saturday's bare-knuckle main event at the AO Arena.

Darren Till and Yoel Romero faced the media for the last time in Manchester on Thursday, two days before they meet in the BKFC 94 main event at the AO Arena, live on DAZN.

The face-off. Their stare-down at the launch press conference in August ran for about four minutes and went viral. Thursday's was short and tense, with no repeat, as MMA Fighting noted.

Till on Romero. Asked about his claim that he is not afraid of anybody, Till said: "Obviously, it's a big challenge, but I've never been afraid of any man in my life. I think as a fighter, if you're a real man's fighter, not like these fighters of today, you'll fight anyone, anywhere, any f*cking time."

He gave Romero his due. "Yoel is a beast and, you know, he's always been one of them guys, even in the UFC, that a lot of people have wanted to avoid." Asked if he was sick of talk that he was scared of the Cuban, Till said: "Sick to death of it."

Then came the promise. "I'm coming for pure f*cking violence on Saturday night, five, two-minute rounds. This is gladiatorship from 2,000 years ago." And: "They don't pay the money to see me answering stupid questions... Saturday night, we're going to go right f*cking at it."

Till on Tommy Fury. Asked whether BKFC could make a fight between him and Tommy Fury, Till, referring to BKFC president David Feldman, did not sound hopeful. "I wasn't even allowed to Tommy Fury's last f*cking fight, mate, so I don't think he's going to get in the f*cking ring with me. I think, realistically, I think money talks in this game... if there's one man you can believe in, David can get it done. But for me, personally, from what's happened since we were meant to fight, I don't personally ever think I'm going to fight Tommy. Would I fight him? Yeah... I don't even think I've ever looked at a fight contract in my life. I just say yeah to every fight."

Romero keeps it respectful. Speaking in Spanish through a translator, Romero stayed away from trash talk. "Thank you God for allowing me to be who I am and do what I do. This is a great opportunity for me to show people that... everything's possible," he said, as translated. "Me and Darren, we share the same philosophy for this fight. We're blessed to be here... It's not time for people to talk. It's time to show people what we're made out of."

The records. Both men are unbeaten in BKFC. Till knocked out Aaron Chalmers in the second round of his bare-knuckle debut at BKFC 90 in Birmingham on 30 May, getting up from an early knockdown to do it, MMA Junkie reported. Romero stopped Theo Doukas in the second round at BKFC 80 in September 2025; his one bare-knuckle defeat came on points against Vagab Vagabov at an IBA Bare Knuckle event in Russia in March.

The undercard. BKFC 94 has three title fights under the main event. David Mundell defends the middleweight title against Jack Cullen, the pair sharing an intense face-off on Thursday. Gaz Corran and Mac Bygraves also meet for a middleweight title, and Karl Thompson faces Andy Thornton for the cruiserweight belt, a fight Thornton predicts will end with someone "going to sleep".

The quotes are from DAZN's coverage of the press conference.

UK start times and the full card: BKFC 94 UK start time. From our archive: Yoel Romero, beaten by Paulo Costa in a UFC 241 war, meets Darren Till.

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Yoel Romero, beaten by Paulo Costa in a UFC 241 war, meets Darren Till at BKFC 94