Till wins controversial decision 

Liverpool native Darren Till cemented himself as a welterweight title contender when he defeated top-ranked Stephen Thompson by a controversial unanimous decision on Sunday at UFC Fight Night. 

In a very tactical, low-volume fight, it appeared that Thompson had landed the more effective strikes throughout, but with Till having the home crowd support, the judges may have been swayed. 

The fight nearly did not happen as Till missed weight by 3.5 pounds at Saturday's weigh-ins. As a stipulation for the fight to occur, Thompson's team asked that Till weigh less than 188 pounds on the day of the fight. 

Till weighed 187.3 at 1 p.m. local time on fight day and the bout went forward. 

With the win, Till likely moved into title contention. 

 

Theodorou improves UFC record to 7-2

Toronto-based middleweight Elias Theodorou continues to look impressive in the octagon.

Theodorou, who turns 30 this week, secured a unanimous decision victory in a closely contested fight against Trevor Smith on Sunday.

Theodorou is the only Canadian ranked in the top-15 of the middleweight division and could move up as a result of his victory.

Recently, Theodorou has taken on another job in the combat sports sphere, acting as the "ring boy" for Invicta FC, an all-female MMA organization.

 

Magny donates $15,000 of fight purse to child with rare disease

After his win over short-notice opponent Craig White in Sunday's co-main event, Neil Magny re-affirmed his pledge to donate $15,000 of his fight purse to Presley O'Doherty, a child diagnosed with the rare genetic disease spinal muscular atrophy.

According to E. Spencer Kyte of UFC.com, Magny does not know the family of the child, but was moved by the story from their GoFundMe account, which has raised nearly $8,000 of their $20,000 goal.

Per the article, Magny has been in touch with the family and hopes to spend time with them once he returns stateside following his win.

 

Attendance and Bonuses

UFC Fight Night at Echo Arena sold out minutes after going on sale. It drew 8,520 attendees for a $1.3 million (U.S.) gate.

Performance bonuses were awarded to Tom Breese for his knockout of Dan Kelly, Claudio Silva for his submission victory over Nordine Taleb, Arnold Allen for his comeback win via front choke over Mads Burnell and Darren Stewart for his knockout win over Eric Spicely. They all earn an additional $50,000.

 

St-Pierre not interested in Diaz fight, looking to fight McGregor or Nurmagomedov

Despite speculation that the UFC was looking to book a fight between former welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre and Nate Diaz at UFC 227, St-Pierre says that he is not interested in fighting the Stockton, Calif. native.

St-Pierre told ESPN's Brett Okamoto that he felt fighting Diaz would put him in a no-win situation because the expectation is that he would have an easy time defeating him.

St-Pierre knows that fighting Diaz would be a good opportunity financially, but as he has mentioned in recent interviews, his legacy is more important to him at this stage of the 37-year- old's career.

In terms of legacy, St-Pierre feels that adding a title in a third division would be the cherry on top of his already illustrious career and is hoping to face the winner of a potential future title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.

The lightweight division has no shortage of contenders, so McGregor may not be top of mind in that regard.

St-Pierre has yet to compete in the lightweight division over the course of his UFC career and fought at middleweight for the first time in 2017, capturing the middleweight championship in a submission victory over Michael Bisping.