Darren Till ‘confident’ wrestling will hold up against Tyron Woodley at UFC 228

Darren Till has a huge opportunity to capture UFC gold later tonight (Sat., Sept. 8, 2018) at UFC 228 live on pay-per-view (PPV) from inside American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, when he takes on reigning welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.

It is a tough matchup for Till to say the least. Not only is Woodley aiming to defend his 170-pound title for the third-straight time, but he’s one of the best wrestlers the welterweight division has ever seen. That doesn’t necessarily bode well for Till as the European contender does most of his work on the feet.

Entering UFC 228, “Gorilla” understands that his wrestling defense will have to hold up if he’s going to be able to do much of anything. And while Till is mainly a striker who knocks opponents dead with powerful punches, he believes his ground game is good enough to succeed at the highest level.

“I’m confident. I’m a good wrestler,” Till said ahead of UFC 228 (h/t MMA News). “I don’t give myself a lot of credit for how good of a wrestler I am, like, defensively and offensively. Before I got in the UFC, I actually fought some good wrestlers. I fought a guy in Argentina. He had been to the Olympics, Greco wrestler.

“You know, I’m going to fight this wrestling OK.”

Till, who has never lost inside of the cage, believes that Woodley has his own weaknesses to worry about. The talented Englishman just has to rely on his strengths to bring out the worst in “Chosen One” and capitalize on the champ’s mistakes.

But again, it all starts with Till defending the wrestling of Woodley and remaining on his feet.

“I’m extremely confident that we all have holes in our game,” Till said. “People ask me, you know, some fighters they say I just know I’m going to win because my all around game is better. If you wear it like that, coming to a fight. Say a fighter has his strengths and has his weaknesses, Tyron has his strengths over me and I have my strengths over him. And that’s how the fight is going to play out.

“Just strengths to weaknesses. So I’m extremely confident with my wrestling offensively and defensively.”

Only time will tell how efficient Till’s wrestling defense will be against Woodley. If he’s able to stuff a few early takedowns it may be a very long night for the champion.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 228 fight card, starting with the Fight Pass “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6:15 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard balance on FX at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET.