We should remember that Darren Till is just 25 years old.
There is no doubt that Till will come back stronger after learning that he is not unbeatable in his first shot at UFC gold on Saturday night. Tyron Woodley marches menacingly on.
Till was submitted by Woodley in the second round of the UFC 228 main event and lost the ‘0’ on his record.
The build-up to this weekend’s clash was nothing but respectful as both Till and Woodley acknowledged the threats posed by the other but ultimately it was the defending champion’s gameplan that came out on top.
The respect carried on after the fight as the pair embraced and hinted at a rematch down the line.
"We can do it again man!" 👊
A nice moment of sportsmanship between Tyron Woodley and Darren Till backstage after #UFC228 pic.twitter.com/SEcpWZmXmO
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) September 9, 2018
Till even enjoyed an emotional embrace from Woodley’s mother backstage and the Liverpudlian was full of class with his message to Woodley’s family.
“No matter when you fight someone, it doesn’t matter if you hate them or you like them. I don’t hate Tyron. It’s never personal with me,” Till said in his post-fight press conference.
“I just wanted to kill Tyron as much as he wanted to kill me for this fight.
“But you see a guy’s mother or you see a guy’s daughter, you’re not going to stand there and disrespect them. You’re not going to be like: ‘Oh because I hate your son, I hate you’.
“It doesn’t work like that. That’s his family. I’ve got my family.”
Amazing moment ❤️@DarrenTill2 & @TWooodley's Mom embrace after the #UFC228 main event.
(via @Peety_Editor) pic.twitter.com/yT9xmpiFiY— UFC (@ufc) September 9, 2018
“Some guys do cross the line of insulting family members, whether it be girlfriends or whatever, online or to their face,” Till added.
“It would never affect me but if somebody ever did it then they’d better know that when we come face to face they’d better be ready to fight with me because I’ll fight with them. I’m not about this pushing and shoving game at weigh-ins. If someone goes, it goes. It’s not a push. It’s a fucking punch coming to the face.
“And she just gave me words of advice. It was comforting. She gave me a nice, big hug and I told her to be proud of her son, who beat me tonight. I told her to go and enjoy it because they deserve everything.
“No matter what you say, people can give Tyron a hard time or whatever but he’s beat everyone and he’s just beaten me.
“Boring or not, he’s just beaten me and that wasn’t boring and him and his family and his mother, they deserve it so it was nice to get a hug from her. It really was.”
