Kamaru Usman has made it public that should something happen to Tyron Woodley or Darren Till in the UFC 228 main event, that he will be there to play cleanup for the main event, and the one thing he expected to pick up was the welterweight championship Woodley would be dropping should it be Till who fell from the UFC 228 equation. And now, Tyron Woodley is being just a clear in his response of the prospect of Usman getting this opportunity: Nah.
“Me and Usman will fight at some point in time, and I’m with it,” Woodley said on the Ariel Helwani MMA Show (via MMA Weekly). “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 skill sets to the table and is a true fighter. I’m with it all day. But I’m not going to fight him 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.
“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 fucking Cowboy (Cerrone). I’m a professional, and I’m a champion. If he 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 is now safe to say that the odds of Usman’s declaration that somehow, someway, he will become champion on September 8th just plummeted to 0%, at least if its contingent on Till making weight or not, according to the reigning champion Tyron Woodley.
If Till did miss weight for UFC 228, would it be in bad taste for Tyron Woodley not to accept the Usman fight?
