Tag: Kamaru Usman

It’s Darren Till or bust for welterweight champion Tyron Woodley at UFC 228.

The #6 ranked Usman recently went on record as to state that he was the UFC’s plan B in case the challenger Till missed weight for his title fight against Woodley at UFC 228. It appears, however, that is not the case.

Woodley made it perfectly clear speaking to Ariel Helwani on his MMA Show, he isn’t afraid to fight anyone, provided he is given ample time to prepare for such a challenger:

“Me and Usman will fight at some point in time, and I’m with it,” Woodley said. “I’m with it, I’m with fighting him, I’m with fighting Mike Perry, all these dudes I respect. I like a person who brings true skillsets to the table and is a true fighter. I’m with it all day. But I’m not going to fight (Usman) on no 24 hours notice.”

“I’ve been training for a six-foot-three striker, a southpaw. Not a five-foot-ten poor stand-up. Negative. I don’t do what I do the best because I wing s–t, I train, I prepare, I strategize. I break my opponent down to a molecule and I drown them, I leave them empty, I take away all their best gifts, and then I snipe them. I’m not going to switch it up in five minutes.”

Love him or hate him, Woodley is the UFC’s longest current tenured champion and with that should come with some respect according to the self-proclaimed welterweight GOAT:

“I’m a world champion. I deserve proper notice, I deserve proper time to prepare and train for a world title that I worked so hard for. I’m not going to step in. I’m not that guy. Go grab f*ck*ng Cowboy (Cerrone); I’m a professional, and I’m a champion. If (Usman) wants to fight me, it’s going to be on a full training camp. And I would gladly take him up on that offer.”

It looks like Usman will get his chance at Woodley one day. However, as long as “The Chosen One” is champ he will dictate his fights and no one gets to fight Woodley unless he has ample time to prepare.

The post Tyron Woodley Says It’s Darren Till Or Bust At UFC 228 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

A ‘Dream Scenario’ for Kamaru Usman just may become a reality, as he will serve as the official standby for the UFC 228 main event title-fight between Darren Till and Tyron Woodley.

Speaking with Luke Thomas on a recent episode of The MMA Hour ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ explained that whether or not the UFC reaches out to him is irrelevant. He will be on weight Sept 8 to realize a dream.

“It wasn’t really a selection process; I believe I was the rightful guy to be fighting for the belt in the first place,” said Usman.

“I was already training before they announced the fight,” he continued. “I was already going to make weight regardless of whether they called of not. It was going to be in Dallas, my hometown — that’s my fight. That’s a perfect fight for me.”

“So, I was already in training and fortunately [the UFC] was like, ‘Hey, we want you on standby’. I was going to do that anyway, they didn’t have to tell me. I was going to be there on weight whether they compensated me to be there or not. I was going to do that for free because that was my shot.”

A sportsman in every sense of the word, Usman doesn’t wish any ill will on either Till or Woodley. That being said, he admits he has dreamt of this exact scenario.

“If Darren Till is able to make weight, more power to him, I want him to be able to make weight and get his shot. And if everything is fine with Tyron, more power to him. But in my dreams I dreamt this was the process of how I become champion.”

“Nothing changes for me,” Usman said of his preparation. “The only difference is with the scheduled bout, there’s a little less of that pressure, a little less of that anxiety that you feel. Once you have an opponent in your mind that you’re preparing for, you’re working on specifics and you get guys in to mimic what they do. This is different where I don’t have to do that. I’m just training hard, doing the things I’m good at and kind of, in a roundabout way, doing some mimicking things of what these guys are good at. It’s a little less stress, I kind of prefer it this way.”

Gold is the be all end all for Usman, so Woodley would be his preferred opponent if his services were called upon in Dallas. However, from a purely stylistically point of view, Usman beleives Till is the better option.

“If it was just as opponents, of course I would rather [fight] Till. Till is a bigger guy, right now he’s got the wave, he’s got the whole country behind him. He’s that face guy that the UFC is really behind and they’re really trying to push. So, yeah, I’d want Till, for sure, absolutely,” he said. “Plus, he hasn’t really been tested. Everyone wants to see that ground game tested. I want to test that, I want to see what he possesses down there when he’s put on his back.”

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