What is this, pile it on Tyron Woodley month?
A few weeks after Matt Brown slammed “The Chosen One,” dubbing him a “tomato-throwing bitch” who wasn’t worthy of a shot at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight title, Rory MacDonald chimed in on Tyron’s fight against Robbie Lawler, which is set to headline UFC 201 on July 30, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia.
It’s not that “Red King” doesn’t think Woodley is a worthy challenger for “Ruthless,” he just feels the title shot should have gone to Demian Maia because as he relayed to MMA Junkie, the submission specialist has been active and winning.
“I thought they were going to give it to Demian Maia. I was a bit surprised that Woodley got it. But the champ needs to stay busy, wants to fight, and Woodley was patiently waiting. He was ready. It’s how it plays out. Sometimes it’s not always the rightful guy gets the shot. You look at boxing, they have like tune-up fights in between their title fights. They’re not always fighting the No. 1 guy year around. It’s a little different in our sport. Everyone thinks it always has to be the next guy, because it’s the next top guy. Woodley’s a good challenge. I’m not saying it’s not going to be a good fight, I just would have expected Demian to be the next guy because of his success.”
Woodley is currently riding a two-fight win streak, but hasn’t competed since January of 2015. It’s through no fault of his own, however, as his fight against Johny Hendricks, which was set to go down at UFC 192 in October of last year, was scratched due to “Bigg Rigg’s” weight-cutting issues
As for Demian, he’s currently riding a five-fight win streak, most recently disposing of the aforementioned Brown at UFC 198 (see it).
Nevertheless, “The Chosen One” will look to make the most of his opportunity and silence all the naysayers who feel he shouldn’t be at the big dance to begin with when he faces perhaps the hardest-hitting 170-pound fighter in the game today.
For more on the UFC 201 pay-per-view (PPV) event — which also features Demetrious Johnson defending his flyweight title against Wilson Reis — click here.