UFC Announces Tyron Woodley vs. Darren Till, Yoel Romero vs. Paulo Costa

The UFC has announced two big fights as Tyron Woodley will defend his welterweight title against the undefeated Darren Till at UFC 228 while Yoel Romero will take on Paulo Costa at UFC 230.

The Las Vegas-based promotion made the announcements Tuesday night as UFC 228, taking place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 8, got its official main event in the welterweight title fight.

Woodley (17-3-1) will be defending his title for the first time since July last year when he defeated Demian Maia via unanimous decision at UFC 214. However, many expected him to face heated rival Colby Covington instead, who won the interim welterweight title at UFC 225 last month.

Covington though, was reportedly stripped of his title for not being able to compete in September and Till (17-0-1) got the nod instead. The Liverpool native most recently defeated former top contender Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson via unanimous decision in May, albeit controversially, but missed weight for the contest by 3.5 pounds.

This led many to believe he would not get a title shot until he won at least one more fight and made weight, with Till himself admitting that may be the case. But with Covington's supposed injury, it seems the UFC had no choice and Till will now get to compete for the strap in just his seventh fight with the promotion.

Also on the card is a women's flyweight title bout between champion Nico Montano and Valentina Shevchenko while exciting featherweight prospects Yair Rodriguez and Zabit Magomedsharipov will also clash.

Meanwhile, UFC 230, which takes place Nov. 3 in Madison Square Garden, New York, received its second official fight as Romero (13-3) will take on Costa (12-0) in an exciting middleweight contest. Both fighters are knockout artists with a combined 22 knockouts in their 25 professional wins.

With Romero currently ranked No. 1, a win for the undefeated Costa could see him virtually become the new number one contender and leapfrog the likes of Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman, both of whom are expected to fight each other at UFC 230 as well, though it is not official as of now.

The other official bout on the card is a middleweight contest between Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and David Branch in what is looking likely to become a card stacked with 185-pounders all competing.

UFC 230 will mark the promotion's third annual trip to Madison Square Garden and the last two occasions have seen stacked cards with high pay-per-view buyrates and live gates. It looks like the same can be expected this year but as of now, there is no official main event for the card.

There is a belief that Khabib Nurmagomedov could defend his lightweight title in a highly-anticipated grudge match against Conor McGregor in the main event, however, it's dependent on the Irishman's court hearing on Thursday while he also needs to renew his New York license.