Kamaru Usman is on standby to step in and fight in the UFC 228 main event if needed. Not that Usman wishes ill on anyone, which he has specifically said that he is not doing as a potential replacement, but if we were to name an “ideal” situation for someone who has gone through the pains of a training camp and making weight for this occasion, it is difficult for Usman himself not to admit that the best scenario for his career would be if Darren Till missed weight and was unable to fight Tyron Woodley, thereby permitting him to fill the “challenger” spot in the main event. But Tyron Woodley shot that down the first time he was asked about this possibility:
“I’ll fight anybody on a full training camp. I’ll fight you on a full training camp, but I’m not a guy, this is not a circus to me,” Woodley said on the Ariel Helwani MMA Show. “You’re not going to have me prepare to fight a 6-foot-3 striker southpaw, and then on 24 hours’ notice because this motherfucker missed weight and he’s unprofessional, now I gotta fight a 5-foot-10 switch-stance wrestler. No, you’re not going to waste my time, you’re not going to money that I put into training camps, you’re not going to add this one crazy variable and make me feel like I’m the pansy for not taking the fight. No…”
On a recent appearance on the same program, Kamaru Usman lent his interpretation of why Woodley is refusing to fight him at UFC 228:
“He doesn’t want to switch from mentally preparing to fight a 6’2” southpaw that fights long, can’t really wrestle that well, and then you go to a switch-stance striker that’s ambidextrous, can hurt you with either hand, can outwrestle you, has cardio for days, shows no weaknesses….I don’t think that’s a transition that he wanted to make. So that’s why he said he’s saying, ‘No.”
Kamaru Usman was sure to also point that if he were in Woodley’s shoes and he saw himself banging on his door for a short-notice fight, he would do the same thing:
“So hey, I’m not sure whatever his reason is. Me and him haven’t discussed that yet. He hasn’t talked to me about that. He didn’t tell me about that. So I don’t know what’s going through his mind. But if I was him, I mean, I wouldn’t be the guy that you’d fight on 24 hours’ notice. That’s for damn sure.”
Do you believe Kamaru Usman should try to bait Tyron Woodley to accepting the fight with trash talk if Darren Till falls out of the UFC 228 main event?
