Tyron Woodley wants to fight Johny Hendricks badly. Just one look at his Twitter and that would be easy to see. Woodley’s manager, though, isn’t sure if Hendricks is interested.
“If you look at Tyron’s accounts on social media, he’s looking for that fight,” Malki Kawa told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “He’s begging for that fight. Johny wants no part of Tyron. I don’t think that’s a good fight for Johny. I think he wants to wait it out and get the championship and I can understand where he’s coming from, but if I was him I’d fight Tyron and shut Tyron up. Tyron can be annoying when it comes to that stuff. He’s constant — ‘I want that fight, I want that fight.'”
Woodley (15-3) is coming off two straight wins over ranked welterweights Kelvin Gastelum and Dong Hyun Kim. Hendricks (17-3) lost the title to Robbie Lawler at UFC 181 last December, but rebounded by beating Matt Brown via unanimous decision at UFC 185 in March.
Lawler is defending his title against Rory MacDonald at UFC 189 on July 11 in Las Vegas and there isn’t a clear next in line after that. A fight between Woodley and Hendricks would surely hash that out.
“I’m pushing for it,” Kawa said. “[Woodley] really wants that fight bad. I don’t know if Hendricks wants that fight to be honest with you.”
Stylistically, it’s also an attractive matchup. Both Hendricks and Woodley were accomplished college wrestlers. Both also have one-punch knockout power. A fight between the two top welterweights would also be good enough to headline a FOX Sports 1 card or maybe even be the co-main event of a pay-per-view.
The ball seems to be in Hendricks’ court. As the former champion, he has the inside track on the next title shot — especially since many thought he beat Lawler in a very close split decision in December. Some could make the argument that Hendricks really shouldn’t have a loss since 2010, because of a controversial split decision defeat against Georges St-Pierre in November 2013.
It’ll probably be awhile until Lawler or MacDonald are ready after July. Hendricks-Woodley sometime over the summer would make sense.
“If Johny has any type of fight in him, then he’ll fight Tyron,” Kawa said. “But I don’t think he wants it.”