Tyron Woodley expects “gatekeeper” Thompson to dispatch of Till so he doesn’t have to

Having not lost a single MMA bout, Darren Till has been rocketing toward UFC welterweight title contention for some time. In the opinion of UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley, however, Till’s momentum will stop in his next fight, when he battles two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.

“‘Wonderboy’ the gatekeeper,” Woodley said in a recent Q&A on Instagram Live (via MMAJunkie). “He’ll do all my light work for me. All the dudes that think they want a shot at the strap, they’ve got to go through him, and ain’t nobody do it yet. I think Thompson [beat Till] man, to be honest. I know I’ve talked a lot of trash about Thompson, more in light joking. But Thompson is a very difficult puzzle to figure out. And it took me a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of training partners to figure him out.”

“I just don’t think Till has what it takes to take him out. With that said, I’ve got to go with ‘Wonderboy,’ even though he’s never said I was going to win a fight. But I’m just going to be a real guy and be honest: I think he’s going to win.”

During his Q&A, Tyron Woodley also addressed the other goings on in the welterweight division, including Rafael dos Anjos and Colby Covington’s planned UFC 224 interim title fight, and Kamaru Usman’s UFC Chile battle with Santiago Ponzinibbio.

“I think Usman’s probably going to do his thing against Ponzinibbio,” Woodley said. “Ponzinibbio is tough, though – crazy striker, really big for the weight class, a lot of punches thrown with cruel intent. It’s hard to say [who will win] in that fight.”

What do you think of Tyron Woodley’s breakdown of Darren Till vs. Stephen Thompson and Kamaru Usman vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/30/2018.