Tyron Woodley is headed for one of the biggest fights of his decorated career when he fights Kamaru Usman in the co-main event of this weekend’s (Sat., March 2, 2019) UFC 235 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It’s a huge fight with a built-in rivalry that will shape the UFC’s welterweight division for the immediate future.
Yet somehow, some way, any conversation related to the sport of MMA circles back to one man. Right or wrong, that was the case when the topic of Conor McGregor’s loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 was brought up during a recent UFC 235 media luncheon via MMA Fighting this week. While the bout drew the biggest pay-per-view (PPV) numbers in the history of the UFC, Woodley offered the opinion that it just wasn’t that great of a battle:
“It wasn’t that great a fight,” said Woodley, who was in town Monday promoting his Saturday night title defense against Kamaru Usman in Las Vegas. “I don’t care what anybody else said … they both kind of looked bad. They both looked like old men at the nursing home fighting each other. But then we glorified this fight. It wasn’t like this great strategic fight where one person was strategic.”
Doesn’t Matter?
“The Chosen One” has been called out for having some ‘strategic’ bouts of his own. He bumped that trend when he dominated Darren Till in his last defense. Woodley has held the belt since July 2016, but he’s nowhere near the level of McGregor in terms of stardom. No one ever has been in MMA.
So as critical as he is of UFC 229, it was a sort of ‘compliment’ to what he’s accomplished in MMA. It’s to the point where it doesn’t matter if McGregor, who is 2-3 in his last five fight including his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, wins or loses. He makes people care and therefore, pay. In the fight game, it’s a quality that is valued above all else:
“This is a person that, I don’t give stats, he’s lost a few times and won a few times,” Woodley said. “But look at his mystique he has. So it’s telling you it’s not so much about winning. It’s about
A Double Standard?
The champ went back to his own critics who cite his strategic style. He claimed an all-out brawling style helped fighters keep their spots on the UFC roster:
“If you go out there and you punch and you bleed and you brawl and you go back and forth, you really can’t lose in that situation,” Woodley said. “You can get your ass whupped and knocked out, but if you fought to a point where everyone was like ‘oh my god, he’s so tough,’ not only with the fighters and the fans but the promotion, you’ve kind of almost put yourself in the mold where they’re going to keep you.”
So it creates an odd trend in the UFC according to Woodley. Some fighters keep their jobs with poor records, while others are dropped after one fight. It’s not something you see in a professional sport like basketball, Woodley pointed out:
“We saw with [Keith] Jardine, we saw with so many fighters forever that, subpar, .500 records that stayed around that, then you have a guy who
Two Sides To The Tale
He’s right that pro fighters must hold up two ends of a spectrum to find success. The best fighters do deliver both in and out of the cage. Playing at a high level is enough for those in sports like football, baseball, and basketball. Talking trash is often viewed as a bad thing, in fact.
But this is fighting, and rivalries do and always will fuel it, like it or not. There’s some bad vibes between he and Usman right now. It’s helping the bout as a result. Woodley is known for speaking his mind. It’s not always received with welcoming ears; in fact, often it isn’t. He holds up the other end of the bargain by winning in the cage, however.
He has to. As for McGregor, well, Woodley may be right that it doesn’t matter. ‘The Notorious’ is rumored to be returning this summer. We’ll see if it does matter if he loses that fight.
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