Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson isn’t convinced Darren Till deserves his fight with Tyron Woodley.
Thompson was defeated by Till via controversial unanimous decision at UFC Liverpool in May. Till will now face Tyron Woodley for the UFC welterweight title at UFC 228 next month. There has been a lot of controversy in regards to the Englishman’s title opportunity, however.
In Till’s fight with Thompson, he came in well overweight at 174.5 pounds for a welterweight contest. Despite this, Till was still given the next title opportunity. Thompson was recently a guest on Submission Radio.
When asked if he thinks Till deserves his title opportunity against Woodley, his answer was simple – “No”:
“Do I think he deserves it? No. I really don’t. This is a professional sport, and making weight is part of the job. You agreed to make the weight. I mean, it’s like the Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero.
“You know, if you don’t make weight, you don’t fight for the title. I think it should be the same. If you don’t make weight, you don’t move up the rankings. It’s part of the job. You signed a contract to be that way, and my god, you should make it, you should make it.
“And he was bragging about it weeks before the fight how he’s this massive 170(-pounder), how the UFC shouldn’t be allowing the fight. Which made him look even worse because he didn’t make weight. And that was 171. I mean, how is he gonna make 170?
“So yeah, man, I would definitely be questioning that as a fan, but also as the UFC. So, for him to be actually fighting for the title, man… and they’re wondering why people aren’t making weight. Because there’s no consequences.
“Yeah sure, he wasn’t getting paid much for that fight, so of course he won’t make weight. Give 20 or 30 percent or whatever it was to move up the rankings. So now, I mean, he’s probably getting crazy money to fight now, so I bet it was worth it.
“And the UFC is like, why aren’t these guys making weight? Because there’s no consequences. You know, no real consequences. A lot of people will give them 30 percent and move up the rankings cause their next fight will be more money. It’s just a sacrifice at the moment for a bigger gain later on.”
