Moments after he dispatched of Demian Maia at UFC Fight Night 119 Saturday night with a decision win, Colby Covington called out Tyron Woodley, the reigning UFC welterweight champion. At the same time, Covington didn’t make any friends in Brazil, throwing more shade on the country as he has done all week in the build […]
Moments after he dispatched of Demian Maia at UFC Fight Night 119 Saturday night with a decision win, Colby Covington called out Tyron Woodley, the reigning UFC welterweight champion. At the same time, Covington didn’t make any friends in Brazil, throwing more shade on the country as he has done all week in the build […]
[MMA NEWS ARCHIVES] Who do you think is the greatest UFC welterweight of all time? On this day four years ago, then-champion Tyron Woodley made the case for himself. The following is Woodley’s argument and the original article in their original, unaltered form. On This Day Four Years Ago… [ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 17, 2017, 9:18 […]
Who do you think is the greatest UFC welterweight of all time? On this day four years ago, then-champion Tyron Woodley made the case for himself. The following is Woodley’s argument and the original article in their original, unaltered form.
On This Day Four Years Ago…
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 17, 2017, 9:18 PM]
Tyron Woodley believes he has surpassed Georges St-Pierre’s legacy at welterweight and wants to prove it.
St-Pierre is known as the most dominant welterweight in the history of mixed martial arts (MMA). On Nov. 4, he will challenge Michael Bisping for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight title at UFC 217.
Woodley is the reigning 170-pound title holder, who has defended his gold three times. “The Chosen One” had all three defenses in less than a year. An injury is holding him back from one last title defense to close out 2017.
While the winner of Robbie Lawler vs. Rafael dos Anjos is set to challenge Woodley next, the champion recently said on his “Morning Wood” podcast that he wants a bout against St-Pierre (via Flo Combat):
“They don’t want them problems, man. He had a chance to fight me and he said no. Georges has been away for three years, almost four. By the time he gets in there, it’s gonna be just a few days shy of four years so the sport has caught up. Whatever advantage he had, whatever degree of separation he created by being such a great martial artist, people have played catch up.”
He went on to say that he wants the bout to prove that he has leapfrogged “Rush” as the greatest welterweight of all time.
“I think I’ve surpassed him. He was a person I looked up to but skill for skill, mindset, explosion, power, wrestling ability, timing, strategy, all those things. I feel like I’ve surpassed Georges, and that’s why I want to go out there to fight him and prove it.”
Tyron Woodley believes he has surpassed Georges St-Pierre’s legacy at welterweight and wants to prove it. St-Pierre is known as the most dominant welterweight in the history of mixed martial arts (MMA). On Nov. 4, he will challenge Michael Bisping for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight title at UFC 217. Woodley is the reigning […]
Tyron Woodley believes he has surpassed Georges St-Pierre’s legacy at welterweight and wants to prove it. St-Pierre is known as the most dominant welterweight in the history of mixed martial arts (MMA). On Nov. 4, he will challenge Michael Bisping for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight title at UFC 217. Woodley is the reigning […]
After an illustrious 15-year career in MMA spanning 40 fights, former interim UFC welterweight champion Carlos Condit publicly questioned if he still belonged fighting the best in the world following a shockingly rapid first-round submission loss to Demian Maia in his last bout in August 2016. But when ‘The Natural Born Killer’ asked UFC matchmaker […]
After an illustrious 15-year career in MMA spanning 40 fights, former interim UFC welterweight champion Carlos Condit publicly questioned if he still belonged fighting the best in the world following a shockingly rapid first-round submission loss to Demian Maia in his last bout in August 2016.
But when ‘The Natural Born Killer’ asked UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby for a fight on social media, the fight game saw the flame of one of its most exciting mainstays seemingly lit yet again, and during a time when the UFC needs it most.
Condit was subsequently booked for a return bout versus longtime contender Neil Magny at December 30’s UFC 219, signifying his still-burning commitment to the gladiator sport upon which he’s made such an amazing impact.
Perhaps looking to clear the air concerning his lengthy break, Condit discussed the return of his desire to compete during a recent appearance on “The MMA Hour” with Ariel Helwani, confirming his fighting spirit had never left but noting that his understandably down state lead to some disappointment in his performance.
“That feeling never really left honestly, man,” Condit said. “I’m a fighter, this is what I love to do, there’s obviously a lot of different factors that go into making decisions. And as important as what I’m doing with my life and career and all that stuff. I think I wanted to fight, I’ll probably want to fight until the day I’m dead.
“At the time, [I was] feeling very dejected, disappointed,” Condit said. “And I’m a competitive person and I obviously fell short in, in my eyes, a really sh*tty way, because even fights I lost in the past in the UFC, I’ve still gone there and fought my ass off and put on hell of a show, And that fight I wasn’t able to do that and that added to the sting.”
Joshua Dahl for USA TODAY Sports
A member of Albuquerque’s famed Jackson-Wink MMA, Condit also described how he spent his time away from the cage pursuing other business ventures. But after awhile, his competitive side continued to urge him to compare his skills to those of the other best fighters in the world.
And ultimately, fighting is what he loves, he said, and there are bills to pay, meaning it’s time for him to return:
“I’ve been debating and kind of getting back in the gym here and there and seeing where I’m at against other competitive fighters, and I did not, I was not sure; I was on the fence for a long time.
“There’s a lot of different factors,” Condit said. “I still love to fight, I still love to train, I love the process, I love the people I’ve surrounded myself with, I love my team and also, honestly there’s a financial piece to this, too. This is my trade, this is what I do. I didn’t go to college. I don’t have a whole lot of options as far as backup plans. I’ve got bills to pay and mouths to feed, so, let’s strap up the gloves and get to it.”
Despite a deservedly elite reputation thanks to an incredible 28 finishes in 30 wins, the No. 7-ranked Condit has a long and winding road back to a title shot in the notoriously rough welterweight waters.
He’s lost five out of his last seven bouts, even if many still believe his split decision loss to Robbie Lawler and his unanimous decision defeat to Johny Hendricks should have gone his way, in addition to him losing to current champion Tyron Woodley due to a torn ACL.
That said, he’s also fought the absolute best without hesitation, and most of the time, he took them to the limit. A few classic Condit wins could see him back in the title hunt right away, and perhaps a bout versus the winner of UFC 217’s Stephen Thompson vs. Jorge Masvidal tilt could be in the works while Robbie Lawler and Rafael dos Anjos battle to see who takes on the currently injured Woodley at December’s UFC on FOX 26.
Some people do not like the new era that the UFC is currently in. It’s all about making money fights that define top-tier stars rather than becoming a champion to become the next star. UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is something of a throwback since winning the title at UFC 201 last July. Since becoming […]
Some people do not like the new era that the UFC is currently in. It’s all about making money fights that define top-tier stars rather than becoming a champion to become the next star.
UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is something of a throwback since winning the title at UFC 201 last July. Since becoming the champion, Woodley has defended the belt three times, each time against the top-ranked contender.
It’s not that Woodley hasn’t tried to chase down money fights because he has. If you recall, just hours after winning the title Woodley began calling out Georges St-Pierre, Conor McGregor, and Nick Diaz but those fights have evaded him.
St-Pierre is making his return to the octagon after an almost four-year layoff, but instead of attempting to reclaim his title, St-Pierre is moving up a weight class to challenge Michael Bisping for the middleweight title at UFC 217.
On the most recent edition of his The Morning Wood Show podcast (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting), the champ doubled down on his assertions.
“Some guys have medium speed, medium power, good wrestling, good attacks. I’ve been blessed to have maximum speed, maximum explosion, maximum power, and then [Din Thomas] and Duke [Roufus] have helped me add the other stuff, economy of motion, knowing when to explode, when not to explode, how to fight five rounds. . .
“They don’t want them problems, man. He had a chance to fight me, and he said no. Georges has been away for three years, almost four. By the time he gets in there, it’s gonna be just a few days shy of four years, so the sport has caught up. Whatever advantage he had, whatever degree of separation he created by being such a great martial artist, people have played catchup. I think I’ve surpassed him. He was a person I looked up to but skill for skill, mindset, explosion, power, wrestling ability, timing, strategy, all those things, I feel like I’ve surpassed Georges and that’s why I want to go out there to fight him and prove it.”
Rumors have been running rampant that St-Pierre and his team have the UFC lightweight champion in their sights as the next possible opponent for “GSP” after the middleweight title fight. It should be noted that St-Pierre has denied the rumors for his part though he did not rule it out entirely.
It’s safe to say that if GSP wins at UFC 217 then a McGregor call out becomes odd as the most obvious weight for that fight to happen at would be 170 pounds due to the fact that cGregor has fought there twice before
“No, that’s a disrespect to me. [St-Pierre] probably [will call out McGregor], but he’s gonna have to be honest with the fans and say, ‘I’m here for money.” And that’s okay. There’s no shame in that. . . Just know I’m gonna call him out on that. Win, lose, or draw, I’m gonna want to fight the winner of that fight, Bisping or Georges. Then I’m going to want to come back and see all this fresh new talent in the welterweight division and I’m gonna want to show them a lesson too.”
“He’s smart. He’s a PPV king. He already did what he needed to do in the welterweight division. Win or lose, it’s not gonna do anything to tarnish his career against Bisping and also he wants to make money.”
UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is going against the grain. It was announced on Thursday morning that the UFC on FOX 26 main event would see a clash of welterweights as Rafael dos Anjos and Robbie Lawler will go to war inside the world-famous Octagon. There are some fans that believe this fight should have […]
UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is going against the grain. It was announced on Thursday morning that the UFC on FOX 26 main event would see a clash of welterweights as Rafael dos Anjos and Robbie Lawler will go to war inside the world-famous Octagon.
There are some fans that believe this fight should have an interim welterweight championship up for grabs.
UFC on FOX 26 is slated to take place on Saturday, Dec. 16 at MTS Center in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and airs on FOX following early prelims on the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass. With the current landscape of the division, this bout could serve as a title-eliminator. Dos Anjos took to Twitter to ask if fans think that an interim title should be on the line for this fight.
Am'I the only one that thinks that this fight should be for a interim title? Since the champ is out until next year?
Following the reception he got from fans, he took to Instagram to further push the narrative and demanded that this fight should have the added stakes of an interim 170-pound belt.
“Two former Champions ranked #1 and #5 fighting while the current Champ needs months to recover from an injury…if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it MUST be a duck!!! This is an Interim Title Fight no matter what the headlines say!!! Let’s do this @ruthless_rl. ????????????????”
A post shared by Rafael Dos Anjos (@rdosanjosmma) on
It didn’t take the UFC champion long to respond to dos Anjos’ comments as he took to Twitter to write the following. He made sure to remind the former UFC lightweight champion that he’s defended his title three times since claiming the belt with a first-round knockout of Lawler at UFC 201 in July 2016.
Am I the only Champ that has fought 4X in 12months? Against REAL #1 contenders! Get past @Ruthless_RL then come holla at these hands! @ufc
