Tyron Woodley says he’s fighting Darren Till at UFC 228 no matter what he weighs in at, and would not fight replacement Kamaru Usman on short notice.
UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley will defend his title against upstart Darren Till at UFC 228, and he has said that the bout is personal for him. Till has claimed he saw doubt in Woodley’s eyes during a press conference to promote the fight, which Woodley obviously denied. They have continued to go back and forth with banter on social media.
One question regarding the bout was whether Woodley would still fight Till if he missed weight. Till, who weighed in at 173.5 pounds for his victory over Stephen Thompson, has the UFC worried enough about it that they are paying fellow top contender Kamaru Usman to cut weight and be ready to fight should Till not make 170.
But as far as Woodley’s concerned, he’s fighting Till no matter what and has no interest in a scrap with Usman in that situation. In a conversation with Ariel Helwani of ESPN, he made his stance very clear:
“I’m chasing greatness. If he doesn’t make weight, he takes away for me the opportunity to add a fourth title defense on my resume. Whether he’s 176 or 170 on the dot, he’s still going to get that ass-whopping.”
…
“Me and Usman will fight at some point in time. But I’m not going to fight you on under 24-hour notice. I’ve been training for a 6-foot-3 striker, southpaw. Not a 5-foot-10 wrestler. Negative. I’m a world champion. I deserve proper notice. I deserve proper time to prepare and train for a world title I’ve worked so hard for. If he wants to fight me, it’s going to be a full training camp. I’ll gladly take that if offered.”
We’ll just have to see what Usman says about that. UFC 228 goes down on September 8th in Dallas.