UFC 228: Woodley vs Till

[d-d-d-dAz]

From a pure promotional perspective (in this current entertainment era particularly), Dana’s in a shit of a bind.

I imagine he was delighted to get the chance to hold Colby off, and maybe get the belt on someone who would inspire a huge baby face reaction (at least in his home country).

In Colby, they’ve got a huge heel that potentially could do good business against an opponent that people will get behind. And that ain’t Woodley.

I bet his big purple head was desperate to run Colby/Till for the belt in the U.K.

[jimufctna24]

I really wanted Till to win this. He's no saint, but I can't be doing with Woodley. Nevertheless, I was very surprised to see the bookmakers make Till a slight favourite. Surely Woodley should have been the favourite given his experience, well-rounded game and being more comfortable at 170lbs? For me, those factors eclipsed Till's size advantage and striking.

The Sherdog preview mentioned that Till has a tendency to be a bit gun-shy. So after the first round, I expected a protracted 5 round clinch-fest with not much happening, other than Woodley doing enough to win most of the rounds. But as we saw, Woodley landed big in the 2nd round and eventually polished Till off. Again, I can't stand him, but it was a very impressive performance by Woodley. One of the best fighters in the world. 

Till's will surely move up to 185lbs now. Middleweight is a shark tank with the likes of Weidman, Kelvin, Whittaker, Costa and Romero. He'll do very well to even become a top contender in that division. 

[David]

Needless to say, I'm glad to see that Woodley tapped the Scouser. It was as close to a masterclass as you're likely to see.

Personally, I don't see the reason for the Woodley hate. Does he moan? Yes, he does. With legitimate gripes, in my opinion. You'd hope he'd get the respect from the organisation that he's due, but I won't hold my breath on that.

[WeeAl]

That was a really entertaining card overall.

Woodley showed his class against Till. Till skipped a lot of fighters in the rankings at 170 so there are a lot of people I would like to see him paired up against. He could also love to 185. Woodley against Covington is the next logical step for the division, depending on what a certain French Canadian wants to do. 

Andrade and Suarez really made a statement with their performances. For me, I think Andrade Vs Rose is the way to go, with Suarez getting either Joanna if she wants to stay at 115, or Gadelha if JJ moves up.

Alhassan was an absolute wrecking ball against Niko Price. That's one dangerous man. There won't be too many men at WW that'll jump at fighting him next. 

Glad to see Rivera get the win against Dodson. It's much more interesting for the future of the division, as well as to watch, as I don't find Dodson particularly entertaining. 

Sterling scored a decisive finish in what was a very close fight up until that point. It's a deep division though and I feel like a lot of these guys can all take wins off of each other. Dominick Cruz has been out that long that I wouldn't be against Sterling Vs Cruz. You also have Marlon Moraes and Assuncao nipping at TJ's heels. It's too deep a division to have Henry Cejudo jumping ahead of all of the guys at the top end. 

Delighted for Miller and Sanchez. They both had fantastic performances. 

Zabit got the win as we expected, he didn't have it all his own way in the first, likely losing the round but he pulled out a great submission to get the win. I like either the Mendes or Yair fights for him next, and both would be really interesting next steps for him. It's incredible to think what could still be to come from him as he is still very young. 

[David]

When you see how Woodley handled a dude the size of Till, can you imagine that not that long ago people were talking about Woodley vs McG? Jesus Christ.

[wandshogun09]

Well that was a pretty great show. 

Woodley looked phenomenal. Easily his best showing since the Lawler knockout. I've never warmed to him but you can't deny he's an amazing fighter. Hopefully he'll start getting the credit he's been due for some time now. I still think people were overrating Till a bit and basing too much off the Cerrone win. But given the size advantage he had here, his striking and the confidence he was coming in with, for Woodley to just steamroll him like that was really fucking impressive. Especially given Woodley's year plus layoff with the shoulder injury. That's something we all neglected in the build up. Woodley had a significant layoff and shoulder injuries can derail a career. He comes back and squashes what is really a fucking light heavyweight, or at least a middleweight, masquerading as a welterweight. Tremendous comeback and I look forward to him knocking Colby The Cunt out cold. 

Till might as well move to 185 now. He's not getting a title shot at 170 for a good while now as long as Woodley's on the throne. So it's either go back to square one at 170 or start fresh at 185 and not have to kill himself making 170 anymore. 

Jessica Fucking Andrade!! Bloody hell. Just battered poor Karolina to bits. You very rarely see that kind of destruction from a strawweight woman. I've been saying it forever, Andrade is a tank. She was handy at 135 but she's been a killer ever since dropping to 115. With every win she notches at 115, Joanna's win over her looks all the more impressive. In fact, in retrospect Andrade might've been the best win of Joanna's reign. It's got to be Rose vs Andrade now. It just has to be. After a performance like that, you can't deny Andrade. Suarez can wait. She'll still be there down the road. 

Zabit rolls on. Love watching the bloke. Tough early on but he found a way with that kneebar in the second and that's the mark of a legitimate fighter. If one way isn't working, switch it up. I'd like to see them rebook the Yair fight next. Maybe on one of the end of the year PPVs. It's too awesome a matchup to give up on. Book it and wrap Yair in bubblewrap until the weigh ins. Wouldn't mind the Mendes fight but I really want to see Mendes vs Volkanovski after Volkanovski called him out. 

Wasn't keen at all on the Rivera vs Dodson fight. It was the only fight on the card that I didn't get into. I put much of that on Dodson. He's just not much fun to watch is he? It was a win for Rivera though and that's what he needed. Hopefully he'll get a better dance partner next time out and can make a better statement. 

Alhassan vs Price...Jesus. You just knew when these two got matched up that it was going to be a fireworks display. 40 odd seconds of utter mayhem and violence. Alhassan is a beast. Anyone who stands with him does so at their own risk. Price is legit as well, he's way better than this fight showed but Alhassan never even let him get going. It was almost a shame it ended so quick because I thought these two had all the ingredients to get the FOTN bonus. It was a hell of a way to kick off the PPV though. 

Thought Tatiana Suarez looked fantastic on the prelims. She's gong to be a real handful for anyone at 115 with that kind of grappling game. Esparza has always been a bit of a one trick pony but that one trick is wrestling and she is very good at it. To see Suarez just take her to school in the wrestling just shows what a completely different level she's operating on as a grappler. She'll probably get rushed into a title shot fairly soon because she's unbeaten and the division doesn't have that many obvious contenders but I'd like to see her in a couple more fights like this first. Couple more training camps and good tests and I see it as inevitable that she gets her shot before too long. She might be ready now, to be honest. There's something likeable about her as well, seems a cool girl. And with the inspirational backstory of her beating cancer, there's a lot to like. 

Aljamain Sterling had perhaps his best performance to date. I fancied Stamann to edge him but was pleased to be wrong. Good win for Aljamain and he looked great against a tough guy to look good against. A fucking full nelson from back mount, I ask you! And that inverted kneebar finish was brutal. 

Geoff Neal's headkick, fucking hellfire! Got to be in the running for knockout of the year that. He looked real good before that but once the shin whacked upside Camacho's neck it was a wrap. These Dana Contender Series guys often go under my radar but they almost always impress me when they get to the big show. I'll have to start making the effort to follow that show more closely. It seems to be churning out more prospects than TUF these days, or is it just me? 

Darren Stewart vs Charles Byrd was an explosive opener for the TV prelims. Don't recall really seeing Byrd before but he looked sharp early on, but Stewart just destroyed him with those elbows at the end. Impressive showing. Stewart is one of the UK fighters I always forget about but he's pretty fucking solid when you watch him. 

Didn't see the Fight Pass stuff but chuffed to hear Jim Miller got back in the win column with a quick submission. Sounds like Diego Sanchez dominated Craig White as well. There's fight in these old dogs still. 

A really fun show top to bottom, I thought. 

[jimufctna24]

Helwani compared the main event to GSP vs Hughes 1.

I don't see the comparison myself. Till might indeed come again as Helwani suggested. However, GSP gave Hughes all he could handle in the first round of their initialmeeting before making a rookie mistake that got him armbared. Till never really had Woodley in bother and didn't really leave any substantial clues that he will become a force in the future. GSP came out of his first meeting with Hughes with something promising to build upon. He only needed a bit more seasoning. For Till, it's back to the drawing board completely. 

[David]

13 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Till might as well move to 185 now. He's not getting a title shot at 170 for a good while now as long as Woodley's on the throne. So it's either go back to square one at 170 or start fresh at 185 and not have to kill himself making 170 anymore. 

They say you're only as good as your last fight, and to be honest I didn't see a hint of anything to suggest that Till will be a force at 185lbs. 

Are there guys there he can beat? Absolutely. But how will he do against the top three or top five in that division? Take away his size advantage and I don't think he's going to be quite as effective.

[jimufctna24]

Middleweight is one of the hardest divisions to dominate. Whittaker is the division's current kingpin and a world-class operator, but he was extremely lucky that the judges gave him the nod against Romero last time out. I had Romero winning that fight. Whittaker has also yet to face Weidman, Rockhold, Gastelum, three fighters who you could easily imagine beating him. That's mental when you consider the wealth of opponents that Whittaker has already beaten at 185lbs (Jacare, Romero, Brunson). Then you have Mousasi, arguably the best of the bunch, fighting in Bellator. 

If Till can square off against 4 of those lot and come away with 2 victories, he will have done very well for himself. 

[the_mole]

He did similar stuff at WW that Whittaker & Kelvin did, Weidman is always injured, Rockhold barely fights, he also seems to back up a lot with his chin in the air and yes I know they are fighting in NYC, Romero can't make weight and needs Whittaker to drop the belt for another shot and he's in his 40's, Jacare is good but I think Woodley fights smarter (not as exciting sometimes) than all these guys.

The Women's Strawweight division got a boost, they might not even need Joanna right now as Andrade seems set, she has legit knockout power and Suarez wrestling was insane, the commentators were right in she's kind of like the female Khabib in that sense, had it not finished. It could have been 10-8 every round. Sterling & Zabit having the same crazy submission on one night, the card was really good. I missed all the fight pass fights. Till said his plan was to pick up Woodleys fight pattern in the first, be a little more aggressive in the second then try and take over him by the third.

[wandshogun09]

6 hours ago, David said:

They say you're only as good as your last fight, and to be honest I didn't see a hint of anything to suggest that Till will be a force at 185lbs. 

Are there guys there he can beat? Absolutely. But how will he do against the top three or top five in that division? Take away his size advantage and I don't think he's going to be quite as effective.

Yeah, I'm not saying he'll wreck shop at 185, far from it. I actually think it's probably an even tougher division for him than 170. But what can you do? I think he's just too big to make 170 consistenly and, even if he could, he was beaten by Woodley so decisively and dominantly that he's not getting a sniff of a title shot again anytime soon. I don't think he's got much choice but to move up to middleweight really. Unless he finds a way to make 170 a lot easier and is willing to fight his way through the division again. It's either stay in a division where the weight cut fucks him up or move up to a division where he probably has less success but there's much less risk of dying on fight week. Unless he's fighting Paulo Costa or Yoel Romero. 

[Carbomb]

Or he goes up to LHW, which is perhaps a little less of a shark tank. But, obviously, it wouldn't make sense to do that before he's had a proper crack at 185.

[wandshogun09]

He was saying in some interviews over the last week that his time at 170 was coming to an end whatever the result vs Woodley and he did mention 205 being a possibility, as well as 185 obviously. 

Maybe he feels differently now he's had a taste of what a truly elite championship level fighter can do. I mean, if Woodley can grapple him into oblivion as the smaller man at 170, imagine what a Romero, Weidman or Jacare could do at 185? Or even middle of the pack 205ers like OSP and Latifi. 

205 is a shallower pool though and there are less wrestlers in that division, especially once DC hangs 'em up. But he'd also be completely giving up that size and range advantage he usually enjoys and so much of his striking style relies on controlling the range. 

Just thinking of some of the potential matchups for Till above 170 though, Till vs Rockhold jumps out as one I'd love to see. That could be a great fight. Of course if Rockhold got him down he'd almost certainly crush him but it'd be interesting to watch. 

[AdamTH17]

Till vs the winner of Brunson/Adesanya would make for an interesting Middleweight debut if that's the route he chooses to go. I think that's who I'd pair him with before feeding him to the killers of that division.

[wandshogun09]

Till vs Adesanya would get my vote, regardless of the result of Adesanya-Brunson. That would be some fight and I'd love to see how their personalities would clash as well. Could even see that potentially headlining a UK card next year.