Tyron Woodley fires back at ‘Mr. Injured’ Hector Lombard: ‘I’ve never ducked a fight’

Tyron Woodley figured Hector Lombard would move on from the pair’s public spat once either of the welterweights had a fight on the books. That, however, doesn’t appear to be the case.

Lombard continued his interminable crusade against Woodley earlier this month, telling reporters in Mexico City that his American Top Team stablemate shouldn’t be able to pick and choose opponents, and the real reason a fight between the two failed to come to fruition was because Woodley knew he was going to lose.

“Look at my résumé,” Woodley responded on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “Look who I fought. I haven’t fought any scrubs. I’ve had a big break. I fought four times in a year. I fought in November, I fought in March, I fought in June, I fought in August, and I’m supposed to turn right back around and fight in November just because somebody wants to fight me?

“The reasons why I didn’t fight, I stayed true to those things. Me and somebody at American Top Team, whether this person is my best friend or whether this person is a complete idiot, I’m not going to fight that person unless it’s for a world title because we can fight somebody else in the division. The division is stacked.”

For his part, Woodley has remained largely quiet since UFC president Dana White threw him under the bus for rejecting the proposed Australia bout this past August, while the same surely can’t be said for Lombard. And at this point, with a clash against undefeated Kelvin Gastelum locked in for UFC 183, Woodley is sick of hearing about it.

“I don’t think that freakin’ Kelvin Gastelum is anything less dangerous than Hector Lombard,” Woodley said. “I don’t think Carlos Condit was anything less dangerous than Hector Lombard, and I don’t think Rory MacDonald is any less skilled than Hector Lombard. So for someone to say that I’m scared, I’m ducking (him): I’ve never ducked a fight.

“I’ve accepted fights within 10 minutes. ‘Hey Tyron, we want you to take Hector Lombard’s fight — Mr. Injured, and then all of a sudden healed — we want you to take his fight (at UFC Fight Night 48), and I said let me go train. I’m in Singapore on vacation, I go train for one hour, I get back on the phone and I miraculously saved a card. People don’t remember that. They’ve got a very short-term memory, they’re very conditional, so you’re right, at a certain point I was about to pop off, because I was getting pissed off.

“If you know where I’m from and you know what I’ve been through in my life, I haven’t always been the person that I am right now. Me being scared of somebody is not very likely, so when people say those things you want to kinda get back at them,” Woodley continued.

“So I just try to stay focused. I was hoping that when I got a knew opponent and when he got a new opponent, maybe people would start focusing on their opponent. But obviously I’m on someone’s mind quite often and my name stays in the same sentence.”

Woodley added that he’s attempted to reach out to Lombard on a personal level, but for better or worse Lombard appears intent on airing his grievances to the media rather than hashing out any issues face to face.

“Up until recently nobody’s really been talking about Hector that much, so he’s enjoying his buzz,” Woodley said. “He’s enjoying, for once, everybody’s not talking about me or everybody’s not talking about Robbie, everybody’s not talking about Thiago.

“He’s probably salty and bitter about that I’m ranked higher than him, that I’m endorsed more handsomely than him, and more people want to work with me because it’s how you treat people. You have to live up to how you treat people. If you treat people a certain way, then people treat you a certain way. If you treat people poorly, then you’re going to be looked as that guy that’s treating people like crap.

“If Hector wants to sit down, if he wants to talk, I’m all good with that. But I know the truth, he knows the truth, and we’ll squash it at some point.”

Tyron Woodley figured Hector Lombard would move on from the pair’s public spat once either of the welterweights had a fight on the books. That, however, doesn’t appear to be the case.

Lombard continued his interminable crusade against Woodley earlier this month, telling reporters in Mexico City that his American Top Team stablemate shouldn’t be able to pick and choose opponents, and the real reason a fight between the two failed to come to fruition was because Woodley knew he was going to lose.

“Look at my résumé,” Woodley responded on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “Look who I fought. I haven’t fought any scrubs. I’ve had a big break. I fought four times in a year. I fought in November, I fought in March, I fought in June, I fought in August, and I’m supposed to turn right back around and fight in November just because somebody wants to fight me?

“The reasons why I didn’t fight, I stayed true to those things. Me and somebody at American Top Team, whether this person is my best friend or whether this person is a complete idiot, I’m not going to fight that person unless it’s for a world title because we can fight somebody else in the division. The division is stacked.”

For his part, Woodley has remained largely quiet since UFC president Dana White threw him under the bus for rejecting the proposed Australia bout this past August, while the same surely can’t be said for Lombard. And at this point, with a clash against undefeated Kelvin Gastelum locked in for UFC 183, Woodley is sick of hearing about it.

“I don’t think that freakin’ Kelvin Gastelum is anything less dangerous than Hector Lombard,” Woodley said. “I don’t think Carlos Condit was anything less dangerous than Hector Lombard, and I don’t think Rory MacDonald is any less skilled than Hector Lombard. So for someone to say that I’m scared, I’m ducking (him): I’ve never ducked a fight.

“I’ve accepted fights within 10 minutes. ‘Hey Tyron, we want you to take Hector Lombard’s fight — Mr. Injured, and then all of a sudden healed — we want you to take his fight (at UFC Fight Night 48), and I said let me go train. I’m in Singapore on vacation, I go train for one hour, I get back on the phone and I miraculously saved a card. People don’t remember that. They’ve got a very short-term memory, they’re very conditional, so you’re right, at a certain point I was about to pop off, because I was getting pissed off.

“If you know where I’m from and you know what I’ve been through in my life, I haven’t always been the person that I am right now. Me being scared of somebody is not very likely, so when people say those things you want to kinda get back at them,” Woodley continued.

“So I just try to stay focused. I was hoping that when I got a knew opponent and when he got a new opponent, maybe people would start focusing on their opponent. But obviously I’m on someone’s mind quite often and my name stays in the same sentence.”

Woodley added that he’s attempted to reach out to Lombard on a personal level, but for better or worse Lombard appears intent on airing his grievances to the media rather than hashing out any issues face to face.

“Up until recently nobody’s really been talking about Hector that much, so he’s enjoying his buzz,” Woodley said. “He’s enjoying, for once, everybody’s not talking about me or everybody’s not talking about Robbie, everybody’s not talking about Thiago.

“He’s probably salty and bitter about that I’m ranked higher than him, that I’m endorsed more handsomely than him, and more people want to work with me because it’s how you treat people. You have to live up to how you treat people. If you treat people a certain way, then people treat you a certain way. If you treat people poorly, then you’re going to be looked as that guy that’s treating people like crap.

“If Hector wants to sit down, if he wants to talk, I’m all good with that. But I know the truth, he knows the truth, and we’ll squash it at some point.”