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Andrew McNicol

British middleweight contender Darren Till has publicly called on US president Donald Trump to streamline his visa process in time to face Jared Cannonier at UFC 248.
Cannonier (professional MMA record 13-4) is without a fight after scheduled opponent and former champion Robert Whittaker withdrew for personal reasons.
Till (18-2) put himself in contention earlier in the year but a niggling ankle injury and contract negotiations stalled talks. It appears those have since been ironed out after “The Gorilla” Till went straight to the top to arrange a match-up with “The Killa Gorilla” Cannonier.
“Donald Trump get me my visa for UFC 248 so I can whoop this man #PetitionTime,” Till posted on Instagram alongside a photo of the 35-year-old Cannonier.




















View this post on Instagram



















@realdonaldtrump get me my visa for @ufc 248 so I can whoop this man. #PetitionTime @killagorillamma X
A post shared by @ darrentill2 on Feb 12, 2020 at 2:25pm PST



Till, a native Liverpudlian who spent several years training in Brazil, also took to Trump’s favoured mode of public communication: Twitter.
“Donald Trump, do me the favour of getting my visa for UFC 248 so I can fight please. Surely you can pull some strings! #Please,” Till tweeted alongside a crying emoji.

@realDonaldTrump
Do me the favour of getting my visa for @ufc 248 so I can fight please.
Surely you can pull some strings!#Please ‍♂️
— Darren Till (@darrentill2) February 12, 2020

Trump has yet to respond and UFC president Dana White has also yet to offer insight into the logistics of the rumoured fight.
The 27-year-old Till defeated Kelvin Gastelum last November after suffering his only two career defeats to Jorge Masvidal and former champion Tyron Woodley. Till also appeared to have visa issues leading up to the Gastelum fight after landing in the US on very late-notice.
He looks to springboard the rest of the division to set up a future fight with current champion and – by the looks of it – social media friend Israel Adesanya. The Nigerian-New Zealander, who will be headlining the event against Yoel Romero, sent Till a private video message regarding the visa issues. Till posted it to his own page.

Visaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa issuesssssssss pic.twitter.com/h8mukIlpZM
— Darren Till (@darrentill2) February 11, 2020

“Hey, am I gonna see you March 7? Are you coming through? Or you got visa issues?” Adesanya asked jokingly before making gorilla chants.
American Cannonier is on a three-fight win streak having beaten Jack Hermansson, Anderson Silva and David Branch since dropping down weight classes.




















View this post on Instagram



















5 weeks out from UFC 248 and still no fight. @robwhittakermma can’t make it. @darrentill2 is still thinking about it. I’ve got people asking me left and right if they can go ahead and buy tickets and plan trips to Vegas @mickmaynard2 @danawhite @ufc if Darren won’t fight and @yoelromeromma can get a title shot on a 2 fight L streak, then give @kgastelum a contenders match on one too. This is me waiting to hear back.
A post shared by Jared Cannonier (@killagorillamma) on Jan 31, 2020 at 8:12am PST



Cannonier previously said that he was interested in a fight with Till but heard “he’s holding out for contract issues.”
“He wants to get paid more, and we know how that goes. The sport’s still young and we can make as many excuses as he wants, but he should be getting paid,” Cannonier told MMA Junkie.
“He’s fighting top five guys in the middleweight division. He fought for the title. He should be getting paid.”
UFC 248 will be co-headlined by strawweight champ Zhang Weili vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk in Las Vegas.


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Sport

Martial Arts

Mixed Martial Arts


Till calls on US president to ‘get me my visa’ so he can fight Jared Cannonier in March card
Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya sends video to Till joking about his visa issues



Darren Till calls on US president Donald Trump to ‘pull some strings’ and ‘get me my visa’ to fight at UFC 248 against Jared Cannonier.


Darren Till

Donald Trump

Israel Adesanya

UFC 248: Darren Till asks Donald Trump to ‘pull some strings’ with his visa issues

Till calls on US president to ‘get me my visa’ so he can fight Jared Cannonier in March card Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya sends video to Till joking about his visa issues

Till calls on US president to ‘get me my visa’ so he can fight Jared Cannonier in March card

Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya sends video to Till joking about his visa issues