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Tyron Woodley thinks the MMA community could be underestimating him ahead of the Leon Edwards fight.
The last time ‘T-Wood’ fought a Brit, he made mince meat of Darren Till in the UFC 228 main event, submitting ‘The Gorilla’ to retain his welterweight title at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
Woodley then lost his welterweight title to Kamaru Usman at UFC 235 but ‘The Chosen One’ wants to remind fans what he’s capable of ahead of his headlining bout against streaking British welterweight Leon Edwards at UFC Fight Night 171.
“It’s only so long ago, Darren Till, an up and coming fighter that everyone thought was so much bigger than me, so much more powerful,” Woodley said in a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, per Abhinav Kini of Low Kick MMA. “He was going to back me down, beat me up. You think about me being able to do that [beat him], it was very significant. The way that I beat him, how I did it.”
“I stuck true to myself,” he added. “I didn’t allow any second thought to affect me. My legacy is already going to greater when I walk away than it was when I was actually competing.”
Woodley is a ferocious puncher with explosive takedowns, while Edwards is a calm, calculated and diverse counter striker with strong takedown defense. Both men will collide later this year in the UFC Fight Night 171 main event, which takes place on March 21 at the O2 Arena in London, England.