“Tyron didn’t get promoted because he submitted Darren Till.”
All-star coach Din Thomas wants to set the record straight, and has. Apparently, some haters out there (read: mostly people who don’t actually train at all) had made critical comments about MMA champion Tyron Woodley’s recent in-ring promotion to black belt after his UFC 228 win.
“I’ve read on some message boards ‘oh, [Woodley] got his belt because he submitted a white belt.’ Who knows what belt Till is? That’s not why Tyron got his belt! He got his belt because he earned his belt,” Thomas says. He goes on to explain that Woodley should have gotten promoted “two years ago.”
“Tyron Woodley has been doing jiu-jitsu since 2006–that’s twelve years…he does train in the gi, and he does run a gi program out of his academy, and even if he didn’t he still trains jiu-jitsu.”
Thomas goes on to breakdown how tournaments and competition have changed the jiu-jitsu landscape, fighting styles, and viewer expectations about what BJJ should or shouldn’t be.
“We can not put jiu-jitsu in this general box.”
