At only 25 years of age and headlining his second straight UFC card, Darren Till is one of the promotion’s budding stars.

At this weekend’s card in Till’s hometown of Liverpool, England, he has the opportunity to become a household name by beating top-ranked welterweight and two-time title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in the main event.

For Till, all that matters is becoming a UFC champion, and he’s not afraid to admit that he has put all of his eggs in one basket.

“I do not care about anything else, I don’t care about pursuing a career in anything else, if I did care about doing that, I think I would have a big fall in MMA,” Till told The TSN MMA Show. “For me, there’s no Plan B, there’s only a Plan A and I know 100 per cent that Plan A will work.”

Despite only fighting on North American television once back in 2015, Till has had a meteoric rise in popularity. According to the website MMA Mad, Till had only 4,904 Twitter followers the week before he fought Bojan Velickovic in September, 2017. That number rose to 7,208 at the end of the week, and then jumped to nearly 10,000 before he fought Donald Cerrone in the main event of the UFC’s Fight Night card in Gdansk, Poland. His followers more than doubled following his first-round knockout victory over Cerrone. He currently sits at more than 60,000 followers.

The irony is that he doesn’t even use social media because he sees it as a distraction from his ultimate goal of becoming a UFC champion.

“I don’t really have a lot of hobbies. I just like training really, really hard and that’s it really,” said Till. “So for me, I’m staying off social media because it’s always showing off a car or it’s a girl showing off a beauty product and I haven’t got time for stuff like that.”

Till attributes his growing popularity to his honesty and his willingness to fight anyone.

“People like guys like me, because I don’t give a [expletive] and I’ll fight anyone, so a lot of people can find inspiration from that,” said Till. “Obviously people along the way want to see me get beat and get knocked out and that’s fine and I’m sure at some point they’ll be able to bask in that happening. I say what’s on my mind. I say what I believe and I like fighting. That’s why the rise has been the way that it’s been.”

He is also an unabashed company guy. He wants to help the UFC achieve success by any means necessary. If that means fighting elite competition on short notice, he’s willing to oblige.

“I think the UFC sees me as a team player. I’m willing to do what they ask. I haven’t turned any fights down, I’m willing to fight anyone and I stepped up to fight on nine days’ notice in my debut,” said Till. “The UFC sees me as a team player and when you’re a team player you get rewarded. If you’re not a team player and you don’t do your requirements or obligations, unfortunately you don’t get rewarded”

In an interview with The TSN MMA Show, his opponent Thompson referred to Till’s striking as basic, which is a notion that he doesn’t disagree with.

“My striking is very, very basic, but it’s very, very, very efficient and effective,” Till said when asked about his opponent’s comments. “I don’t come out there and do spinning kicks. I come out there to do business. Bread and butter, that’s what my style is, bread and butter, but it’s very intelligent and precise and accurate.

“Stephen’s going to get a shock Sunday. I’m not what he thinks I am. He thinks I’m just this aggressive pressure fighter. He’s going to get a shock.”

If he secures a win over the highly regarded Thompson he knows that the sky's the limit, but he’s willing to follow the UFC’s lead.

“If they want to give me someone when I beat Stephen, then I’ll take the fight,” Till said. “But if they say we want you to fight for the title, I’ll take that as well. For me, at this moment, I don’t really care to be honest with you. I just simply do not care because I don’t fear no man. I don’t fear no man whether he be a grappler, whether he be a submission specialist, whether he be a knockout artist, striking phenomenon, I do not fear no man and I just couldn’t care less. So if they ask, I am there to provide my services.”

Till knows that with his popularity comes a big target on his back, as does the desire to see him fail.

“This weekend, if Stephen comes out and knocks me out, you just wait for how many fighters are going to talk [expletive] about me and I say I knew it was a hype train, he’s only a kid, this that and the other. They’re going to jump on it and that’s why it’s not going to happen,” said Till.

Darren Till faces Stephen Thompson in the main event of Sunday’s UFC Fight Night card in Liverpool, England. The main card begins at 1 p.m. ET on TSN4.