Woodley believes Usman is ‘nervous’ ahead of UFC 235: His confidence is fake

Bloodyelbow.com

On the surface it seems like streaking welterweight contender Kamaru Usman is supremely confident heading into his title bout versus Tyron Woodley at UFC 235.

Watch UFC 235: Jones vs. Smith! This event includes the following Main Card fights: Jones vs Smith, Woodley vs Usman, Lawler vs Askren, Torres vs Zhang and Garbrandt vs Munhoz. Sat., March 02, 9:30 PM ET Buy Pay-Per-View Now

But according to Woodley, who will defend his title for what will be the fourth time of his career at UFC 235, ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ is trying mask his insecurities by putting on a false display of bravado in front of the cameras.

“He says a lot of stuff and sometimes when people talk too much, they’re trying to reassure themselves,” Woodley said at a media event on Monday, per MMA Fighting’s Dave Doyle. “You haven’t heard me talk about Usman.”

Woodley, who got into a heated back-and-forth with Usman earlier this month at the UFC 235 pre-fight press conference in Las Vegas, suspects that his opponent is ‘nervous’ heading into Saturday’s co-main event.

“I looked at his feed, ‘18 days, 17 days,’ like, I’m working,” Woodley said. “I’m planning my [rap album] release party, I’m training, I’m getting my game plan down. I don’t have to talk a lot because I’ve done it already. I’ve done it, I’m not going to stop doing it, and he just has not shown me that he provides the recipe or the cure to beating me that everyone else supposedly has.

“He sounds so confident and I know you all want me to do the LL Cool J impersonation, but he sounds so cool that when people are doing it, they’re nervous.”

UFC 235: Jones vs. Smith takes place this Saturday, March 2nd at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.