Tyron Woodley Rips Colby Covington For Not Fighting, Turns His Full Attention to Darren Till

Tyron Woodley is no longer concerning himself with Colby Covington.

The reigning UFC welterweight champion was anxiously awaiting the opportunity to shut Covington up after he won the interim title back in June, which set up a highly anticipated showdown between the former teammates later this year.

Unfortunately the UFC had other plans with the upcoming card on Sept. 8 in desperate need of a main event and Covington wasn’t able to fight after scheduling sinus surgery that he had done this past week in Florida.

With Covington unavailable, the new main event for UFC 228 was made with Woodley facing off against fast rising British star Darren Till. That fight also means Covington will be stripped of his interim belt after Sept. 8, effectively making his title fight win over Rafael dos Anjos all but meaningless in the grand scheme of the UFC machine.

As much as Woodley was ready to silence Covington once and for all, the defending welterweight champion says he’s now put the outspoken title contender in the rear view mirror as he puts all of his attention on Till.

“Colby Covington was somebody that everybody just wanted to see get his ass whooped because he talks so much crap, he talks so much trash. He wasn’t even good at it. It wasn’t even the most challenging fight in the division style wise. It was just a fight in which fans wanted to see somebody teach him a lesson and I just so happened to be that huckleberry,” Woodley told “UFC Tonight” on Wednesday.

“But Darren Till is a young fighter that is hungry. He don’t have anything to lose. He’s excited about his chance to try and get my gold and that excitement, I remember that very well being a young hungry fighter. I’m just going to dig back that old Tyron Woodley that would have bit someone’s head off for the strap and I’m going to have to teach this young boy a lesson.”

As far as potentially meeting Covington somewhere down the road, Woodley isn’t concerning himself with that idea right now.

The only thing Woodley wants to worry about is facing Till on Sept. 8 and until then Covington can just get back in line with everybody else in the welterweight division.

“He wasn’t even really on my radar until he got on my radar if that makes sense. He was talking all that crap and I wasn’t really giving him attention,” Woodley said about Covington. “The very second he had his hand raised against [Rafael dos Anjos] and had that interim belt on your waist, that means you’re coming for my strap, now it’s smoke. I wanted to fight him for that reason but now since he’s faking a sinus injury and the pansy couldn’t take a Claritin so now I gotta fight Darren Till.

“That’s the next person up and I’m going to take him on as a valid challenger and I’m going to go out there and do what I’ve got to do.”