The best and worst moments from UFC 228

#2 Worst: What was Till’s gameplan?

Darren Till looked overmatched in his loss to Woodley

A hell of a lot of fans – myself included – bought into Darren Till as a genuine title threat to Tyron Woodley’s Welterweight crown going into UFC 228. Some oddsmakers even had him as the favorite going in despite the Brit only having two really great wins – against Donald Cerrone and Stephen Thompson. But to me, he had the style to beat Woodley – the ability to walk the champ down, the size to muscle him off, and the self-confidence and striking power to end his night with a knockout.

But in the end, it looked like the native of Liverpool was simply overmatched. Whether he just got caught up in the moment like a rabbit in the headlights, or Woodley was simply far better, I don’t know. But sadly for Till, he simply didn’t manage to get any significant offense off at all. The stats suggested he scored just two strikes in the first round – realistically he probably only threw one or two more, too – and was then finished in the second.

It’s easy to criticise a fighter from the armchair, that’s true, but if he was going to dethrone Woodley then Till needed to be far more offensive than he was. The case may have been that he was measuring the champ for more offense in the second round, but of course, he never got the chance. In the end, it was just a hugely disappointing title challenge.

Whether ‘The Gorilla’ can bounce back from this is a question mark, too. This was his first career loss and it was in one-sided fashion – the type of loss that can psychologically damage a fighter for some time. Till has repeatedly stated that he’s the greatest fighter in the world, but his loss to Woodley proved emphatically that wasn’t the case – so how does he reconcile himself with that fact? Only time will tell.