Tyron Woodley var mästare i UFC:s welterviktsdivision fram tills i år då han förlorade bältet efter att ha blivit totalt dominerad i fem ronder utav Kamaru Usman under UFC 235, Las Vegas mars 2019. Woodley har sedan varit inbokad att möta Robbie Lawler men fick dra sig ur mötet pågrund utav en kronisk sjukdom i handen. Woodley har däremot vid flera tillfällen uttalat sig att han vill få till ett returmöte mot Usman och vinna tillbaka sitt bälte.
Det har spekulerats vem som är näst på tur att få möta Usman, om det är Jorge Masvidal eller Colby Covington. Dana White har senast meddelat att Covington står näst på tur men ett möte mot Usman har inte bokats. Det tycks vara svårt för Covington att få en fight om bältet. Trots att han var interimästare efter att ha besegrat Rafael Dos Anjos under UFC 225, Chicago juni 2018 så har han blivit förbipasserad utav både Darren Till och Kamaru Usman om att få gå en fight om titeln.
Att Covington har svårt att få till en fight om bältet är något Woodley hånar denne för när han gästade UFC, Vancouvers Fan Q&A session. Han uttalar sig om att Covington saboterar för sig själv
“Colby does a good job of putting his own foot in his mouth. I know people say that about me, but he’s a complete dumbass. He’s talked himself out of three world title fights. He was supposed to fight me before I fought Till, he bitched out of that fight. He was supposed to fight me before I fought Usman, he bitched out of that fight. You guys can do the math as to what he did with the Usman fight.
“My goal is to get my belt back, so obviously (current welterweight champion) (Kamaru) Usman is going to be my top priority. If Colby want to get that ass whupped, he can get whupped up too.”
Woodley berättar att han ogillar Covington men inte hatar denne och att ett framtida möte mellan dom kan bli brutalt.
“To be honest, I don’t hate him. Hate is a very strong word. I don’t hate anybody. I definitely don’t like him. If he was on fire, I wouldn’t pee on him. The thing about it is I think sometimes we run away from our emotions. You’ve got to use those emotions. I think a lot of time my emotion might take me out of what I do best, which is figure out my opponent, take away their weaknesses, and leave them to deal with me.
“I’m not gonna take that away, but if I get an opportunity where I see him hurt, or if I get an opportunity to beat him to the punch, punch him, grab his neck, break his arm, I’m gonna do it. So this is a fight where I’m excited about the emotion that I have towards him and I know he can’t deal with me.”
Relationen till Ben Askren och Jorge Masvidal
Det ryktades tidigare om att Covington skulle utmana Usman om bältet i november under UFC 244, New York. Men detta blir inte av och det blir istället blir en fight mellan Jorge Masvidal och Nate Diaz som blir huvudmatch under UFC 244. Detta gör att Woodley inser att han troligen behöver fokusera på att gå en fight innan han får en ny chans på bältet.
Woodley fick frågan hur han ser på en framtida fight mot Masvidal som tidigare brutalt knockade Woodleys lagkamrat Ben Askren under UFC 239, Las Vegas juli 2019. Woodley känner inget behov utav att hämnas Askrens förlust då han själv har en relation till Masvidal efter att ha tränat med denne på American top Team. Men att han dock kan tänka sig att möta denne i framtiden.
“I train with Masvidal a lot, actually more than I trained with Ben. It’s the nature of the game, the cream always rises to the top so it’s inevitable that people that you respect and that you train with end up meeting each other. Of course I wasn’t celebrating and jumping around the room when he knocked out my teammate. This is not just my MMA teammate. This is a guy that went to the University of Missouri partly because of the tradition we was building there. Somebody I wrestled alongside with, wrestled every single day in practice, close to two years. What people don’t know about me is that I went to Roufusport, part of the reason I went there was because of Ben Askren, because of Anthony Pettis, because of Duke Roufus, and really made the puzzle to beat a southpaw wrestler. You look at my resume, it was Kelvin Gastelum, Darren Till, Demian Maia, ‘Wonderboy’ twice. All these guys are southpaws. So I’m not gonna not be friendly to Masvidal because of what happened with Ben, but if we was in a situation where they were about to talk a little sh*t about Ben, I’d be like, ‘Hey, that’s my guy. I’m not gonna sit here and listen to y’all talk sh*t, but if you want to have that conversation…’ I’m gonna step away and I’m not gonna be an accessory.
“At this point in my career, whenever I walk out there again, I want to be motivated. I want that anxiety, I want to see what he did to Ben, how fast his hands was against Till, that’s gonna gear me up even more to get out there and get it done. But I don’t see that fight happening unless we’re in a title fight.”