UFC Fight Night 118: Cerrone vs. Till

UFC Fight Night 118: Cerrone vs. Till (10/21/2017)

Madison Square Garden, New York City

MAIN CARD (3 p.m. ET, ESPN+)
Donald Cerrone vs. Darren Till
Jodie Esquibel vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
Jan Blachowicz vs. Devin Clark
Oskar Piechota vs. Jonathan Wilson

PRELIMINARY CARD (11:45 a.m. ET, ESPN+)
Haqparast vs. Marcin Held
Dmitrii Smoliakov vs. Adam Wieczorek
Brian Kelleher vs. Damian Stasiak
Ramazan Emeev vs. Trevor Smith
Andre Fili vs. Lobov
Warlley Alves vs. Jim Wallhead
Aspen Ladd vs. Lina Lansberg
Felipe Arantes vs. Josh Emmett

So, following the dust settling from UFC 216, this upcoming event is basically next on the schedule. Just a heads-up though, it’s not happening this weekend, but rather the following one.

There were a few little teasers regarding the main event, leading up to the UFC eventually asking Cowboy to step in and "help out," which he immediately agreed to do. He'll be facing Darren Till, who we all remember pretty vividly from his fight against Veličković on that card over in the Netherlands.

For Till, this is definitely what Americans would call a "big step in Competition". It's a European event, at least by our current standards. I believe the preliminary fights should kick off around 5:45 PM, with the main card starting up around 9:00 PM.

Darren Till has a world-class strike, honestly, but you really have to see if he can actually hang with someone like Donald Cerrone. I’m seriously counting down the days until this happens. 🍿

Honestly, this main event looks way more interesting than that one we saw in the Netherlands 👍

So, there have been some fresh shake-ups on the card—looks like Hamilton is stepping in for Smoliakov, and Alvey is taking over for Trevor Smith.

UFC MAIN CARD (ESPN+, 3 p.m. ET)
Donald Cerrone vs. Darren Till
Jodie Esquibel vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
Jan Blachowicz vs. Devin Clark
Oskar Piechota vs. Jonathan Wilson

UFC PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 11:45 a.m. ET)
Haqparast vs. Marcin Held
Anthony Hamilton vs. Adam Wieczorek
Brian Kelleher vs. Damian Stasiak
Sam Alvey vs. Ramazan Emeev
Andre Fili vs. Artem Lobov
Warlley Alves vs. Jim Wallhead
Aspen Ladd vs. Lina Lansberg
Felipe Arantes vs. Josh Emmett

I honestly don’t know how my liver is supposed to handle these "coaches" who can only offer lines like "he's tired, you got this."

Meanwhile, the guy in the opposite corner isn't even claiming he's in peak condition—he’s basically saying he could go another twenty rounds at this exact pace! Clark Oskar Piechota looks like such an absolute grinder, so how on earth can you look at a fighter like that and just say "he's tired"?

Till 🙏

Nisan expects him to take it, but honestly, my gut tells me there could be a massive upset on our hands. I mean, this whole thing has already blown past everyone's expectations. 🎉

I actually dig his headspace right now—he isn't even stressing about the belt, he just wants to go out there and get himself a solid payday. 🍿

Tyrell really caught everyone off guard there, whereas Cowboy basically just stood there doing absolutely nothing. I guess he just isn't built for this kind of pressure; he seems to really struggle whenever someone like Tyrell starts squeezing him like that.

John looked pretty solid too, especially with that standing RNC attempt. Both Brian and Stasiak put in some decent work, and even though that young kid Nasrat lost, I have to say I was actually pretty impressed with his performance. Finally, Held managed to grab a win in the UFC.