Former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is itching to remind everyone how great he is.
Woodley lost his welterweight title to Kamaru Usman last March, ending a near three-year reign as the 170-pound king. Unlike other champions, though, Woodley was not given an immediate rematch.
Instead, he is now scheduled to face Leon Edwards in the UFC London headliner on March 21. It’s not a fight that Woodley wanted, especially as he felt he should have gotten a rematch.
After all, in his reign as champion, he defeated top contenders such as Stephen Thompson, Demian Maia and Darren Till. His win over Till, in particular, is one that Woodley holds in high regard especially given the narrative going into it:
“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 on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday. “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.”
Woodley, of course, knocked Till down in the second round of their UFC 228 fight back in September 2018. He proceeded to land brutal ground and pound before submitting the Liverpool native.
Given his overall body of work as the champion and how he defeated a number of top guys such as Till, Woodley feels his legacy will be viewed better only once he’s retired from the sport:
“I stuck true to myself,” he added of the win over Till. “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.”
Should Woodley defeat Edwards, he still isn’t sure if he will get a title shot. However, if he does go on to challenge Usman and potentially become champion again, his legacy will only continue grow.
What do you think of Woodley’s comments?
The post Tyron Woodley Reflects On ‘Significant’ Win Over Darren Till appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.