On Saturday night in Dallas, Texas, UFC Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley did it again, adopting a cold, professional demeanor to thoroughly outclass the up-and-coming and heavily promoted Darren Till. Despite Woodley’s lengthy list of achievements, the circumstances around the fight pointed to Till being the "favorite" in more than one sense of the word. For one, the undefeated Liverpudlian was a slight betting favorite over Woodley in most sportsbooks.

Perhaps more puzzling was the favoritism that the UFC itself demonstrated for Till over Woodley in both matchmaking and in promotion. The promotional disparity should be self-evident to anyone who actually watched the broadcast. A commercial that ran near the end of the television prelims featured Till giving a rousing monologue, cinematically cutting back and forth between different shots of Till training, fighting, and delivering his speech. It begged the question – where was Tyron Woodley? Why was Woodley hardly mentioned in this commercial, let alone never featured similarly in a cinematic promo in the build to any of his five title fights dating back to summer 2016?

Till admittedly possesses some measure of innate charisma that Woodley simply cannot match, so one cannot fault the UFC for getting behind Till and trying to maximize his starpower. However, ever since the UFC was acquired by WME, it seems to keep repeating the same mistakes in over-pushing rising stars. Under the ownership of the Fertitta brothers, the UFC certainly tried to build up stars, but it generally utilized a model where the main attraction was the action itself. This strategy fits more squarely with the nature of the sport, where unlike boxing, the charismatic fighters generally can’t become stars by padding their records against safe and beatable opponents, but instead have to take riskier matchups against difficult opponents in order to ascend to stardom. The UFC put a lot of eggs in Till’s basket while virtually neglecting to promote their long-reigning champion Woodley, only to have Till look utterly unimpressive in defeat. This promotional blunder closely mirrors the rapid rise and fall of Francis Ngannou, and even the hasty over-push of Cody Garbrandt that saw the young brawler quickly eliminate himself from the title picture by going 0-2 against Bantamweight Champion TJ Dillashaw in consecutive losses.

So while one can see what the UFC hoped to achieve by strapping a rocket to Till’s back after his dismantling of the smaller, aging Donald Cerrone, in retrospect it seems that a more patient approach might have been better for Till’s career. Even before the fight, there were plenty of red flags on Till – going into his prior fight against Stephen Thompson, many wondered whether a match-up with the division’s established #1 contender was too big a jump for Till’s second bout against a ranked opponent. Nonetheless, the UFC went all in promoting Till in his first main event in his hometown of Liverpool, England. Till nearly squandered the opportunity by missing weight for the second time in his UFC career, and turning in a boring performance that most observers scored for Wonderboy. Luckily for Till some favorable hometown judging allowed him to escape the battle with a controversial decision win.

Even though it was somewhat impressive that Till was able to turn out a close performance against the vaunted Wonderboy, he hardly seemed to be a shoo-in for the next title shot. Still, the UFC was so eager to promote Till that they snubbed actual Interim Champion Colby Covington to give the title shot to Till, and then went a step further by pushing Till significantly harder than Woodley in their promos. Fans who learned of the bout from the television spots might not know that going into this event, Woodley was the UFC’s second longest reigning male champion, nor that Woodley was looking to notch the most title defenses of any active UFC champion, nor that Woodley had hands-down superior wrestling credentials, nor that Woodley had scored knockdowns in each of his prior four fights.

So even without the benefit of hindsight, it was apparent that the UFC was over-promoting Till, while failing to capitalize on the equity of their more experienced and established champion. Michael Bisping saw fit to assert that many fans view Woodley as a "complainer" in the UFC Post Fight show, but frankly it is easy to see why "the Chosen One" is frustrated that the UFC doesn’t seem to share even a fraction of his self-belief and self-promotional aspirations. While Woodley has maneuvered himself into being a TMZ regular, and apparently making a song with Wiz Khalifa, UFC basically pretended he didn’t exist in the lead-up to the fight. Even the media members who vote on the pound-for-pound rankings had multiple non-champions ranked above Woodley.

Once the cage door was locked, though, there was no ignoring Tyron Woodley. Woodley initially came out with more aggression than he has shown in his past title defenses, shooting in on Till’s hips to threaten a single leg takedown and then bully Till up against the fence. Referee "Big" Dan Miragliotta was a bit too eager to break up clinch-work along the fence, and the fighters were twice reset in the center of the cage. The duration of the first round was relatively quiet, with Tyron finding some success sneaking in a straight right hand that foreshadowed the eventual finish of the fight.

At the end of the round Woodley had out-worked Till and done enough to get ahead on the judge’s scorecards. Woodley’s corner encouraged the champ to keep up the high level of activity, advising that Till was reacting to everything and that Woodley should "keep him nervous." As soon as the second round started Till marched forward throwing punches, only for Woodley to expertly slip a jab as Till ran into a counter straight right that landed clean on his jaw. Till’s knees buckled and he fell forward before rolling onto his back, where Woodley had already descended on top of him. Woodley rained down viscous punches that looked like they were in double-speed, mixing in some absolutely ruthless elbows that left Till bloody and dazed.

Till somehow survived as Woodley passed into side control. Daniel Cormier cautioned from the announce desk that Woodley should watch his gas tank, but Woodley kept up the relentless pressure without issue. Till turned on his side, trying to hip escape or at least find a safe place to hide his head. Instead, Woodley demonstrated his superior fight IQ and snatched up a super-tight d’arce choke. On the replay close-up of Till’s face, it appeared that the choke was not just a clean "blood choke" to turn Till’s lights out, but a painful neck crank as well. Even after the referee stopped the fight, Woodley’s demeanor remained almost weirdly calm and composed.

In addition to retaining his UFC title belt, Woodley earned a new belt in the cage on Saturday night, as coach Din Thomas awarded Woodley his jiu jitsu black belt after the victory. This was enough to finally elicit an emotional response, and Woodley broke down in tears with his black belt draped around his neck.

Maybe that black belt earned that response from Woodley because it represented the ultimate acknowledgment of his hard work and dedication, not just in the eyes of a fan or analyst or promoter, but in the eyes of the coach who knows his work ethic firsthand. For whatever reasons, Woodley may never get that acknowledgement from Dana White and the fans. But after holding the UFC’s latest golden goose to only one strike landed en route to a dominant victory, maybe Woodley can at least got a spot in the commercial next time.