Conor McGregor gives 'holy s***' verdict after Darren Till and Yoel Romero presser showdown

Conor McGregor is expected to attend the bare-knuckle bout between Darren Till and Yoel Romero in Manchester in September.

The injured UFC superstar has had surgery after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) while attempting a high kick in his long-awaited comeback fight against Max Holloway in July.

Holloway tallied the win at the end of a fight that lasted just 69 seconds, prematurely bringing an end to McGregor's first appearance in the octagon for five years.

Despite his recovery and rehabilitation being underway, McGregor has given BKFC promoter David Feldman his verdict on the Till vs Romero booking and indicated that he will be present at the AO Arena next month to take it in.

"He loves it," Feldman told Bloody Elbow. "He just said, 'holy s***, how did you make that fight happen?' He’s excited about BKFC in general."

Feldman's Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship promotion has been running bare-knuckle boxing cards since 2018.

Till vs Romero will top the bill at the 166th BKFC event in September, where the world middleweight, UK middleweight and world cruiserweight belts will be on the line on the undercard.

The fight against the 49-year-old Cuban will be Till's second under the BKFC banner after both fighters left UFC.

He made his debut against fellow Englishman Aaron Chalmers in Birmingham in May, knocking out the previously undefeated fighter 22 seconds into the second round.

Romero beat Theo Doukaus in his own BKFC debut last September but has since been bested in bare-knuckle action in Russia.

The future foes put on a show when they met to promote the fight at a press event in Manchester this week.

After dealing with the formalities, BKFC 94 got off to a mouth-watering start in the form of a tense stand-off that lasted for nearly four minutes as neither fighter was willing to cede ground and break eye contact with his opponent.

"Feldman brought the two headliners together for a staredown," reports Bloody Elbow.

"After about 10 seconds, the BKFC president tried to break it up by telling Darren Till and Yoel Romero to face forward.

"They ignored him and continued to quietly eyeball each other for the next few minutes.

"Eventually, the BKFC security team got nervous and began surrounding the two BKFC 94 stars.

"Feldman stepped in the middle of Till and Romero, but they continued to stare at each other from a distance.

"Security guards jumped in between them too, before their awkwardly intense face-off finally ended."

Romero, chewing gum like it owed him money, removed his sunglasses 20 seconds into the staredown, during which Till stood still as the Cuban jawed away at him in search of a reaction and Feldman, who made a series of attempts to break the impasse, could barely disguise his glee even in the excruciating awkwardness of the moment.

Till and Romero maintained eye contact as Feldman and a growing clan of security staff positioned themselves between the fighters, gradually increasing their physical distance and eventually ushering the Liverpudlian off the scene.