Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Dana White and current Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley just can’t seem to see eye-to-eye. The two men have gone back-and-forth at each other in the media for more than one year now, as “The Chosen One” doesn’t appreciate his promoter constantly denouncing him, while White doesn’t want his champion to constantly play it safe inside the cage.
In the latest chapter of their ongoing beef, White — once again — slammed Woodley for talking about a potential fight against Nate Diaz, saying his champion was “full of shit” and the bout was not even an option. To hear Woodley tell it, there always seems to be a double standard when it comes to him — he can’t say anything without being criticized by his boss, while others get more love for being unprofessional.
“T-Wood” unloaded his frustrations during a recent appearance on “The MMA Hour,” revealing he phoned White immediately to see what the problem was.
“The funny thing is, I am the only champion out here fighting No. 1 contenders. That’s what puzzles me when you look at all the musical chairs going on in mixed martial arts (MMA). You see ‘DC’ going up to be a heavyweight, Conor doing whatever the hell he wants, Dillashaw wants to go down, Amanda Nunes and Cyborg want to fight. So, please let Tyron mention something. Instantly it’s, ‘He’s complaining, he doesn’t want to fight this guy, he’s running from this guy, he’s playing the race card.’ Fans, you guys should be tired of this now. I am probably one of the most marketable, professional and hardest working fighters on the roster that is doing it all himself, marketing himself and I’m out her killing birds eating at the table by myself. I just took a huge offense to it, when you make the statement that someone is full of shit, I just can’t get with it and that warranted a phone call instantly from me to Dana. I was really pissed off. I can see if it was a situation that I literally made up. You could have even said it differently. You could’ve said, ‘Tyron is just wishful thinking, the next fight for him is ‘RDA.’ Whatever rational, but when you say Tyron is full of shit, that’s a little bit harsh, a little bit hardcore for somebody that is wearing the belt of your organization. Young fighters that enter the UFC aspire to be UFC champions. How are they going to aspire to be a UFC champion if they see the way their champion’s are treated? Then they see that people that are non-champions, unprofessional, middle finger flicking, shit talking, they are actually making the money. So what kind of picture are we portraying? I thought we were going into the direction to be parallel to the NFL, NHL, MLB. It’s a circus until it comes to Tyron, then we want to go back to the old school rubric. And I got issues with that.”
Plus, Woodley doesn’t appreciate the fact that no one slammed Diaz for “being full of shit” when he expressed interest in the bout.
According to the champ, he intends to have a sit-down with White and Co. in Las Vegas later this week to hash things out and see if they can’t get on the same page once and for all. While he’s there, perhaps they can settle on who will indeed be his next opponent.
I know this guy desperately wants to know.