Who is former UFC star Darren Stewart, who faces Darren Till this weekend?
While both are veterans of the UFC, Till is the larger and more-popular name. Stewart has 41,300 followers on Instagram compared to Till's 378,000. On Twitter, Till has nearly 460,000 followers, Stewart has a relatively small 7,900.
But Stewart comes to the fight with an extensive fight record of his own. The website Sherdog says that the 34-year-old comes in with a record of 16 wins and 10 losses. Nine of his 16 wins have come by KO or TKO, with one submission and six decisions. When it comes to Stewart's losses, he has been stopped twice, submitted twice, and been on the losing side of six decisions.
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It was only in August last year, though, that Stewart had announced his retirement from the sport. In an Instagram post, the former prison officer wrote that he thought it was time to 'call it a day'.
He wrote: 'I'm forced to because I've lost a lot to this game trying to survive and I can't do it no more. When UFC let me go, I should have invested in something but instead I put all my eggs in one basket AGAIN to get back to the top and life has gotten even worse. I've got family and it's not fair on them stressing just to keep food on the table.'
Stewart blamed financial pressures for his decision.
He added: 'Maybe I'll get into boxing if it ever arises, but MMA? Yeah, I'm done.'
Stewart, at 6'0' and fighting as a light-heavyweight within MMA, last fought at Cage Warriors 169 in March 2024, when he lost in two rounds to Carlos Alexandre Pereira. That came on the back of four consecutive wins across 2022 and 2023.
His time in the UFC saw a slew of wins and losses for Stewart. His first fight in that promotion came in 2016 against Francimar Barroso, who ended in a no-contest in the first round. Stewart would lose three more in the UFC over 2017 before notching his first win in 2018 when he stopped Eric Spicely in two rounds.
Stewart followed this up with a win against Charles Byrd at UFC 228, before losing in the finale of The Ultimate Fighter to Edmen Shahbazyan. After another two wins in the UFC, Stewart appeared at Cage Warriors 113, before returning to Dana White's organisation for another five fights. There, he racked up one win, three losses, and another no-contest.
A move permanently to Cage Warriors saw Stewart begin this run with a loss, after which he went on to the four-fight winning streak that brings him to this weekend.
And now, on Friday night, the world gets to see Stewart fight again.
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