Tyron Woodley has a big fight ahead of him against Vicente Luque this weekend at UFC 260, but the former UFC welterweight champion still can’t get over his most recent loss to Colby Covington.
Woodley, who lost his UFC welterweight title just over two years ago, is coming off a disappointing loss to Covington at UFC Vegas 11 in Sept. 2020. The two welterweights shared some serious beef prior to the matchup — mostly due to Covington’s trash talking and pre-fight antics — so it was important for Woodley to showcase that he’s still a top dog at 170 pounds.
Unfortunately for the former champ, Covington was too much for Woodley on that night. “Chaos” pushed the pace, utilized his strong wrestling, and eventually found a TKO finish in the fifth round (highlights HERE). The outcome left Woodley scratching his head and thinking of a way he can end the worst losing streak of his MMA career.
Even though Woodley has a massive fight ahead of him he can’t help but think about his lackluster loss to Covington. In a recent interview with TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter (shown below), Woodley expressed his frustration and explained why a win over “Chaos” would have meant so much.
A very candid Tyron Woodley explains why the loss to Colby Covington hurt more than some of his other losses and tells a story about predicting that Kamaru Usman would become champion one day, just not by defeating him.
Full interview: https://t.co/AWiGpQasOw pic.twitter.com/UYtOatoPYj
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) March 25, 2021
“He wasn’t really disrespecting me. He was doing an act. I know about the act,” said Woodley. “I even talked to him about it, I told him there’s a different way to do it and that he looked stupid and silly. But if that’s what he wants to do, go ahead and do it.
“He was like, ‘Man, I’m just trying to get money and I’m just trying to build this up. We can make money at the end.’
“It hurt to lose to him just because he was willing to use an act to stir up some negative controversy with some things that were very sensitive, whether it was Brazilians, whether it was the political debate, whatever he was doing.
“It was all a game, and I think certainly you shouldn’t play with. And just for someone that I used to pay as a training partner that had never even thought about winning a second against me in any training format, ever in life.”
Woodley, who went undefeated in the sport from 2014-2018, still believes he’s one of the best welterweights in the world today. The former UFC champion may have missed out on his chance to earn a big statement win over Covington, but at least he’s hanging around to claw his way back to the top and deliver a good message to his fans along the way.
“To lose to a guy like that when I had the chance to go out there and beat him sends a strong message to the division, sends a strong message to America that we should stand together,” he said. “And also just… to kind of silence him a little bit. It kinda hurt more for those things than anything else.
“But looking back, I never lost the opportunity to still reach out to those people and send a positive message. In victory or defeat, it’s still the platform.”
UFC 260 will go down later tonight (Sat., Mar. 27, 2021) live on ESPN+ PPV from inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nev., with Woodley vs. Luque serving as the co-main event.
For more UFC 260 fight card news click here.