Coach Din Thomas believes Tyron Woodley will cement his legacy as the greatest welterweight of all-time.
Tyron Woodley surged to No. 6 in the official pound-for-pound rankings after his big win over Darren Till at UFC 228, and coach Din Thomas believes the 36-year-old is closing in on George St-Pierre’s welterweight legacy.
With four title defenses already under his belt and wins over the likes of Demian Maia, Stephen Thompson, Robbie Lawler, and Carlos Condit, Thomas believes a couple more notches under his belt will cement Woodley as the greatest welterweight of ‘all-time.’
Thomas would like Woodley’s next two title defenses to be against Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman.
“I think, at this point, I’m going to have to say second,” Thomas said on a recent edition of The MMA Hour, per MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti. “Like you said, I think his résumé speaks for itself, when you think of the guys that he has beaten, even in his come-up, between like Carlos Condit, Kelvin Gastelum, Robbie Lawler. He’s beaten all those guys. But I think that a couple more title defenses will solidify his position. I think that’s all he needs. A win over Colby — to me, I think Colby’s an easy opponent, to be honest with you, but just on the résumé he kinda needs that just so he can have more title defenses — and maybe even Usman, but if he gets those two then he’s the best of all-time.”
Woodley may very well surpass welterweight great Matt Hughes with a couple more championship wins, but St-Pierre’s legacy is unmatched.
The Canadian fan favorite defended his welterweight title a whopping nine times and then added the middleweight belt to his collection in 2017, choking out Michael Bisping at UFC 217 to become one of the few two-division champions in the promotion’s history.
Woodley was teased to fight Covington at the upcoming UFC 230 PPV on Nov. 3, but ‘T-Wood’ will be out for the rest of the year after dislocating his thumb against Darren Till at UFC 228.
Speaking of the inevitable matchup with Covington, former UFC veteran Thomas doesn’t think ‘Chaos’ poses any real threat to the champ.
“He doesn’t have anything that’s dangerous to Tyron,” Thomas explained. “He doesn’t have the ability to knock him out with one punch if Tyron slips. He doesn’t have the ability to choke Tyron out — to play ‘take him down, take his back, choke him out.’ I don’t think he has that ability. The way Colby can win that fight is to obviously grind him out, and I don’t think he can outwrestle Tyron to get up to that point. So to me, that’s just kind of an easier matchup.”
Woodley will undergo surgery for his dislocated thumb and is expected to be out of action for at least 8-12 weeks.