Till gets his Romero fight seven years after asking, BKFC 94 lands in Manchester on September 26

BKFC president David Feldman announced Monday on The Ariel Helwani Show that Yoel Romero and Darren Till will headline BKFC 94 on September 26 at the AO Arena in Manchester, England. The bout is set at a catchweight of 190 pounds. It reads like a fantasy card someone drew up in 2019 and then forgot in a drawer. In a sense, it is.

Till, then a top UFC welterweight contender, called Romero out on social media roughly seven years ago. The fight never happened. A UFC pairing never materialised. Both men left the promotion, took different routes through the combat-sports economy, and ended up on the same BKFC roster. The callout finally lands with wraps rather than four-ounce gloves.

Till, 33, is the Liverpudlian. He rose to prominence with his UFC welterweight title challenge against Tyron Woodley in September 2018, exited the promotion in 2023, and injected a second act into his career through a four-fight boxing run that culminated in a knockout of former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold in August 2025 to capture the inaugural Misfits Boxing bridgerweight title. He then moved to BKFC, making his debut at BKFC 90 on May 30 at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham. He was dropped in the first round by Aaron Chalmers, walked him down, and finished the fight 22 seconds into the second. He signed a multi-year deal with the promotion after the win. He is 1-0 in bare-knuckle boxing and, on the strength of the Chalmers finish alone, one of the more marketable British fighters BKFC has on its roster.

Romero, 49, is the Cuban Olympic silver medalist whose career remains one of the more physically anomalous in modern combat sports. He debuted at BKFC 80 in Hollywood, Florida on September 12, 2025, stopping Theo Doukas via second-round TKO after three knockdowns. He has fought in the crossover circuit since, most recently at Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA in May, where he stopped Alex Nicholson by TKO. His MMA ledger still includes wins over Rockhold, Chris Weidman, and Thiago Santos.

Feldman used the Helwani segment to explain how the fight was made and how close it came to being made against a different opponent.

“Darren said ‘sure’ immediately,” Feldman told Uncrowned, “and Yoel, it was just a wait to make sure we got the weight done.”

The September 26 date had originally been offered to Mike Perry, Till’s longtime BKFC rival. Perry was unable to commit. He is scheduled to fight Dillon Danis in an MMA bout at Dual Arena 1 on August 29 in Orlando, and the turnaround was too tight to accept the Till assignment. Feldman said publicly that a Till-Perry booking remains a target for February 2027 if both fighters stay healthy.

Both fighters gave statements on the announcement.

“I’ve finally gotten over my years of trauma and nightmares of Yoel Romero,” Till said. “So, let’s f—ing do this.”

“Respect to Darren for accepting the fight,” Romero said. “But respect ends when the bell rings. See you soon.”

The stylistic read is the interesting part of the matchup. Till has always been a counter-puncher who works behind a long left hand, a skill set that translates cleanly to bare-knuckle where volume tends to shred hands and precision tends to close nights. Romero’s game is patience punctuated by explosion, which is either perfect or catastrophic under bare-knuckle rules depending on which round you catch him in. The age gap on paper is 16 years. In a gloveless format where a single clean shot ends the night, that math cuts both ways.

The co-main event is a title fight. BKFC middleweight champion David “The Redneck” Mundell defends against British boxing veteran Jack “The Meat Cleaver” Cullen. Mundell has been the promotion’s steady middleweight anchor. Cullen brings a professional boxing base that will make him one of the sharper technicians the champion has faced.

Feldman said publicly he expects the 23,000-seat AO Arena to sell out. Manchester is Till country, and BKFC has leaned into UK dates since Till signed. The card will stream on TrillerTV internationally.

The full card is expected to be announced in the coming weeks. What is on the record now is the main event, the co-main event, the venue, the catchweight, and both fighters saying yes. Seven years of Till callouts. One September date in Manchester. The rest sorts itself out on the night.