Darren Till: Woodley Is Not A Better Fighter Than Me

In the main event of UFC 228, Tyron Woodley dominated Darren Till to retain the welterweight championship. Darren Till landed one punch and zero significant strikes in the bout, while Woodley turned in a dominant performance to dash the dreams of Darren Till, who had repeatedly expressed that there was zero doubt in his mind that he would emerge victorious in the main event. At the UFC 228 Post-Fight Press Conference, Till was asked what he believed went wrong:

“I was too relaxed,” Till said. “I was too confident. And I’m always confident. Everyone knows that. But I was too like the job had already been done in my head. Because camp went so well, weight cut went so well, everything went so well. I just thought, I just need to win.

“And I knew what he was gonna do. I knew he was gonna come out guns blazing in the first because I knew he had that fear. So I knew what he was gonna do.

“Maybe if I look back I should have warmed up,” Till explained. “I should have been a bit more aggressive backstage. I’m a weird person. It’s weird. Because sometimes backstage, I’ll warm up hard and I’ll be aggressive. And then sometimes I’ll be like, meh, I’ll relax. I don’t have the same type of ritual for every fight. And this time, it cost me. In my eyes, it cost me everything.

“He’s not a better fighter than me, but tonight he was better.”

Darren Till was sure to clarify that he was not making any excuses for the loss, but believes that prefight aggression could have crossed over into the in-fight aggression that was absent in the fight.