Accept the fight mate
Darren Till say welterweight champion Tyron Woodley has declined the opportunity to face him in a title fight.
Most expected Woodley to face Colby Covington, the interim belt holder, in his next octagon appearance but according to Till ‘Chaos’ is “out.”
In a recent appearance on Submission Radio Covington said he needed some time off and would be able to fight Woodley in a unification bout in November or December. However, ESPN has reported that the UFC was targeting the match up for UFC 228 in September, which is short of a headliner.
Till tweeted that he had been offered a title fight but that Woodley has not accepted.
Accept the fight mate @TWooodley
— DT (@darrentill2) July 19, 2018
‘The Gorilla”s camp have confirmed that this is the case, but Woodley has tweeted in kind, saying that he had no knowledge of the match up.
What fight? Ain’t nobody offer me shit. Thought Qweefington was getting smashed next. Y’all challenger need to coordinate y’all ass whipping better! https://t.co/iRAuRm84uf
— Tyron T-Wood Woodley (@TWooodley) July 19, 2018
The undefeated Englishman (17-0-1) told MMA Fighting:
“I don’t know what’s happening with Colby, whether he’s injured or not, but I’ve been offered Tyron Woodley and he turned the fight down.
That’s what it looks like to me and I’ve been on the UFC’s case about it. UFC want me to fight him, but he will not accept it. [UFC] didn’t mention a date or anything, but that’s the fight they wanted to make and he obviously isn’t into it.
I’m not too bothered about it, but I get a feeling that he thinks that nobody is worthy of fighting him for the title. I think he just wants to hold onto the belt for as long as he can. He’s going to have to make a decision soon. If he doesn’t want to fight me, who does he want to fight? It’s just me and Colby and Colby is injured apparently, so who is there? It’s a weird one, but I’m just waiting to see what happens.
Maybe he wants to hold on for the Colby fight or maybe he just doesn’t want to come back — maybe he just doesn’t want to fight me. There could be many reasons but I think we’re going to find out what’s going to happen in the next few days. I’m not thinking too much into it at the moment because I want to have more information. I just want to see what it’s going to be, whether it’s me fighting Woodley or if he’s going to wait to fight Colby.
He’s not getting the Georges St-Pierre fight, he’s not getting Nate Diaz, so who is he going to fight?
I’m not going to wait around for it. I’ll just beat someone else and see what happens. I really feel he wants to just keep a hold of that title.”
UFC 228
Which is all very well and good, but it still leaves 228 without a headliner. Despite Till’s remarks that he did not feel deserving of a title fight after missing weight in his UFC Fight Night 130 bout against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson.
Do the right thing Tyron.
