Tyron Woodley was greatly offended by UFC president Dana White’s disparagement of his claims about a fight against Nate Diaz.
Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and UFC president Dana White have been going on a back-and-forth trade of barbs lately. It was all rooted in Woodley’s claim that his next title defense would be against Nate Diaz.
White specifically called Woodley out for being “full of sh-t”, which Woodley had already responded to. On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Tyron once again spoke about White’s comments, which he feels is hurting his brand.
“That’s a little bit harsh, a little bit hardcore for somebody who is wearing the belt of your organization, that people and young fighters aspire to enter the UFC, they aspire to be UFC champion,” Woodley told Ariel Helwani (via MMA Fighting). “I don’t think many people are going to aspire to be the champion when they see how champions are treated. And they see that the non-champions and the people that are unprofessional — middle-finger flicking, sh-t talking — they’re actually making the money.”
“So what kind of picture are we trying to put out? I thought we were going in the direction to be parallel with the NFL, NHL, MLB and the other professional sports. It’s a circus until it comes to Tyron and now we want to go back to the old-school rubric. I got issues with that.”
“It can’t go down like that,” Woodley added. “It’s very damaging for me, for a fighter that’s trying to generate his brand and his name.”
Woodley also feels there is some bias against him, especially since Diaz did not get the same flak for agreeing that a fight between them is “the next best option.”
“I just didn’t think that was right,” Woodley said. “I think even if he thought that way, it could have been said a different way. I think a lot of people spun what I was saying. Never said this fight was in negotiations. Never said any of those things. Then when Nate came out, I never heard anybody say how full of sh-t Nate was. It’s so funny it was a one-sided bashing.”
“There’s no sport anymore, so quit playing with me when you guys want to act like this is a sport,” he continued. “And people want to [say], ‘Oh, Tyron is such a complainer.’ It’s so much negativity. Use that energy to talk about something positive.”
Woodley underwent successful shoulder surgery in December and has yet to determine his next move.