Darren Till and Yoel Romero were locked in at their first press conference ahead of BKFC 94.
The former UFC stars are set to clash in the main event of the UK card on September 26, where Romero has vowed to ‘permanently’ shut Till up.
Till and Romero were present at Manchester’s AO Arena on Tuesday for a launch press conference for BKFC 94 and things got intense when the pair came face-to-face.
No backing down
At first, it seemed like business as usual when Till and Romero locked eyes.
However, when BKFC founder Dave Feldman told both men to face forward, they refused.
Romero then took his sunglasses off and got right up close to Till, who clearly wasn’t backing down.
Feldman could be heard telling the two main eventers to split apart again just before the one-minute mark, even trying to physically separate both men.
But Till and Romero were not having it and didn’t budge an ounce.
Security guards in Manchester then quickly stepped in just in case things escalated.
Romero, however, told them not to get involved, saying: “Please, I won’t fight him. I won’t touch him.”
After two whole minutes of staring at each other, Feldman insisted the two face forward to pose for the cameras.
But time ticked on, forcing security to creep in between Till and Romero to slowly walk them apart.
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Even with Till and Romero at a distance, the pair refused to let go of any eye contact.
Just after three-and-a-half minutes, Till was eventually backed up enough to exit the stage and Romero took the mental victory as he pointed to the sky.
‘Violence, broken bones and blood’
Till enters the BKFC 94 headliner just four months removed from knocking out Aaron Chalmers on his bare-knuckle debut.
The 33-year-old former UFC welterweight title challenger represented Misfits Boxing before signing with BKFC, which is co-owned by Conor McGregor.
He told talkSPORT.com in April that the offer to take his gloves off for the first time was far too good to turn down.
Speaking at the press conference, Till, a man known for relishing violence, was asked why he believes he’s found his calling at BKFC.
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“I just think as fighters, you go from boxing to MMA and it’s all in its pure form,” Till responded.
“But then if you look back 2,000 years, this is how they fought — bare-knuckle.
“It’s a tough sport, especially fighting someone like Yoel. And it’s just pure f***ing violence, broken bones and blood — spartan s***.
“That’s what I think the world is missing — something like BKFC, because everyone has turned into pretend fighters.
“Everyone wants to be Instagram and TikTok fighters… so I think the world actually needs BKFC right now.
“So it’s just fighting in its purest form and I just love it.”
Romero, meanwhile, last appeared at Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA promotion in May, scoring a first-round stoppage.
The 49-year-old has already represented BKFC and other promotions like Dirty Boxing since unsuccessfully challenging Israel Adesanya for the UFC middleweight title in 2020.
