Wonderboy

Tyron Woodley: Sage Northcutt Is Faster & More Powerful Than Wonderboy

UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley is headed for the biggest fight of his MMA career when he faces surging No. 1 contender Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in the co-main event of November 12’s blockbuster UFC 205 from Madison Square Garden in New York City. After winning the title with an earth-shaking first round knockout over former champion

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After winning the title with an earth-shaking first round knockout over former champion Robbie Lawler at July 30’s UFC 201, ‘The Chosen One’ will now meet an opponent whom many feel has the perfect to defeat his hard-charging style, as “Wonderboy” used his unique karate-based offense to defeat former title contender Rory MacDonald in his most recent bout at UFC Fight Night 89.

The one-sided decision win secured seven straight wins and a title shot for Thompson, who has finished Johny Hendricks, Jake Ellenberger, and surging middleweight Robert Whittaker during the streak. He may possess the most momentum of any fighter in the Octagon, yet Woodley believes Thompson isn’t even as good as his new training partner.

In a video released on his Youtube channel, Woodley is featured sparring with highly touted UFC lightweight Sage Northcutt. Apparently impressed with ‘Super’ Sage’s skills, Woodley made the bold proclamation that Northcutt is indeed faster, more powerful, and in possession of better takedown defense than the larger and more experienced Thompson (transcribed by Bloody Elbow):

“These young guys, man. Old man got to whip out those new tricks, because they come at you,” Woodley said about Northcutt. “I work with Sage. He’s obviously in a similar style as the opponent I will be fighting against.”

“He, just in my opinion, is just a little bit faster, and his strikes come with a little bit more force. His takedown defense should be better. His power should be better, so I’m actually training with a better version of what I’m going to compete with.”

Those words could (will) evoke the collective ire of the online MMA community in a big way, as Woodley has already been the subject of many an online attack following his win over Lawler, including alleged instances of racism.

But aside from those ridiculous back-and-forths, Northcutt is still very inexperienced compared to Thompson, and has yet to display the pure knockout power that the flashy, pinpoint striking “Wonderboy” has used to win his way to the top of one of MMA’s deepest divisions.

Do you believe Northcutt comes close to outclassing Thompson in the areas Woodley focused on? Watch their training video and decide for yourself:

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UFC 205 Press Conference Live Stream

Hot on the heels of last night’s announcement that featherweight champion Conor McGregor would face lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez in the main event of November 12’s UFC 205 from New York, the promotion gets the hype for the huge event rolling with an official pre-fight press conference from the Big Apple tonight. McGregor and Alvarez

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McGregor and Alvarez will join fellow title fight participants Tyron Woodley, Stephen Thompson, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and Karolina Kowalkiewicz in addition to other main card fighters like Chris Weidman, Yoel Romero, Donald Cerrone, and Kelvin Gastelum. Watch the presser streaming live at 6 p.m. EST here:

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Breaking: Conor McGregor Won’t Fight At UFC 205

Finally, several bouts have been made official for November 12’s UFC 205 pay-per-view event from Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. Featherweight champion Conor McGregor just won’t be among them unfortunately. Speculation has recently predicted a Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez main event for the lightweight title, but UFC President Dana White seemingly

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Finally, several bouts have been made official for November 12’s UFC 205 pay-per-view event from Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.

Featherweight champion Conor McGregor just won’t be among them unfortunately.

Speculation has recently predicted a Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez main event for the lightweight title, but UFC President Dana White seemingly put the kibosh on those plans by saying top contender Khabib Nurmagomedov would get the next 155-pound title shot at the event.

White expanded upon that notion earlier tonight when Megan Olivi announced on ‘UFC Tonight’ that the president revealed McGregor was still rehabbing a foot injury from his five-round war with Nate Diaz at August 20’s UFC 202. That meant ‘The Notorious’ was unlikely to fight at the UFC’s first event from New York City. Alvarez vs. Nurmagomedov, meanwhile, was clarified by White as potentially headlining December 10’s UFC 206 from Toronto. Both fighters have been sent new bout agreements for the title tilt.

The five bouts that were officially announced were Frankie Edgar vs. Jeremy Stephens, Kelvin Gastelum vs. Donald Cerrone, Tim Kennedy vs. Rashad Evans, Tim Boestch vs. Rafael Natal, and Liz Carmouche vs. Katlyn Chookagian. Hailing from nearby Toms River, New Jersey, Edgar will look to rebound from a loss to longtime former champion Aldo for the interim featherweight belt in at July’s UFC 200 from Las Vegas.

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley also guaranteed as ‘UFC Tonight’ co-host that he would be facing Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson at the card, a fight that he announced last Friday but is only being held up by a technicality in the contract according to ‘The Chosen One.’

The full card will be announced at a press conference from Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, September 27, 2016, three days before tickets for the historic card go on sale.

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Tyron Woodley Doesn’t Respect “Wonderboy” As A Man

Shortly after making the announcement that he will be defending his welterweight throne against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson at UFC 205 from Madison Square Garden in New York this November, UFC 170-pound champ Tyron ‘The Chosen One’ Woodley recently joined the Anik and Florian podcast (courtesy of FOX Sports) to discuss his upcoming clash with the No. 2-ranked Thompson.

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Shortly after making the announcement that he will be defending his welterweight throne against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson at UFC 205 from Madison Square Garden in New York this November, UFC 170-pound champ Tyron ‘The Chosen One’ Woodley recently joined the Anik and Florian podcast (courtesy of FOX Sports) to discuss his upcoming clash with the No. 2-ranked Thompson.

Woodley said that he is motivated for his contest with the undefeated kick-boxer because while he does respect him as a competitor, he doesn’t respect ‘Wonderboy’ as a man:

“The thing that motivates me about this fight is ‘Wonderboy’ I respect him as an opponent, but I really don’t respect him as a man. He knows that we committed to this fight almost six weeks ago and for him to charade around like I’m scared to fight him, retweeting and liking all these posts.”

“For someone to desperately need to that affirmation from the fans and for people to like him, like I can’t respect that,” Woodley said.

‘The Chosen One’ also stated that he isn’t buying into Thompson’s ‘fake humble’ that has gotten underneath the new champion’s skin, and come fight night he’ll use that as motivation to put ‘Wonderboy’s’ lights out quick:

“For me, I’m going to try to do the same thing to you no matter if I like you, no matter if I hate you, no matter if it pops up. You’re not going to be able to say one thing and now I really want to kick you,” Woodley said. “For some reason, he’s managed to get underneath my skin and I just don’t buy that fake humble, I just don’t buy it.

“When someone’s portraying something they’re not to get underneath my skin, I’m just going to funnel that into a great strategy and I’m going to try to get him out of there quick.”

Before the fight with Thompson was announced, Woodley was adamant on wanting a big ‘money fight’ with 170-pound legends such as Georges St-Pierre or Nick Diaz.

Woodley believes fans took his words the wrong way and re-phrased his statement:

“People misunderstood what I said when I said I wanted a money fight. Maybe I should re-phrase that because when people hear that it almost sounds like I don’t care about the sport anymore. When you’re watching people in non-title fights making four times the amount of money that a champion makes, it takes away the flavor of being a champion,” Woodley said. “Me getting a money fight, me getting paid the way I feel a champion should be paid. So when I fight Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ (Thompson), this will be a money fight.

“Unlike some of the other guys in the different divisions, my fight that I asked for made sense. Not only would they be money fights, but they also would be legacy fights. You can’t deny that Nick Diaz is a top 10 overall welterweight Hall of Famer. Same thing with Georges St-Pierre, he’s No. 1 overall right now.”

Woodley and Thompson will meet for the welterweight title live at UFC 205 on pay-per-view (PPV), from the Madison Square Garden arena in New York City on November 12, 2016.

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Tyron Woodley Opens As Early Underdog Against Stephen Thompson

New UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley may have been aiming for a ‘money fight’ against Georges St. Pierre or Nick Diaz after he won the belt by knocking out Robbie Lawler in late July, but most MMA fans’ wishes were fulfilled at last Friday’s UFC Fight Night 94 weigh-ins when ‘T-Wood’ confirmed he would be

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Most regard ‘Wonderboy’ as the greatest threat to Woodley’s crown, as the general thinking is that Thompson will be able to keep out of Woodley’s early power range while picking him apart in the mid to later rounds where ‘T-Wood’ tends to fade. Apparently oddsmakers agree with this sentiment as well, as Thompson is a -150 favorite with Woodley a +120 underdog according to early numbers from MMAOddsbreakers’ Nick Kalikas, who explained his thinking for setting the line:

“Tyron Woodley is a deserving and dangerous champion, having knocked out Robbie Lawler to claim the welterweight crown, but he may have his hands full in Stephen Thompson. Thompson has proven himself as the best striker at 170 pounds. Woodley has explosive power and is an excellent wrestler, but he’s had major difficulty against technical strikers with excellent takedown defense like Rory MacDonald. Thompson uses distance expertly and recently proved he can push a solid pace for five rounds with his last win. I’m opening the title challenger Thompson as a -150 betting favorite because I feel as long as he survives Woodley in the first round and settles in, he’ll be able to control almost every dynamic of the fight.”

It’s far from the first time Woodley has been in this position, however. Despite his position as champion and arguably the hardest hitter in the talented UFC welterweight division, MMA Junkie pointed out that Woodley has opened as the betting dog in an alarming six straight fights against Carlos Condit, Rory MacDonald, Dong Hyun Kim, Kelvin Gastelum, Lawler, and now Thompson.

He only lost to MacDonald, but many believe that fight will paint the picture of why he will lose to Thompson as ‘The Red King’ was a lanky, technical striker whom ‘Wonderboy’ thoroughly out-struck in their meeting at UFC Fight Night 89 this June.

So it’s a role that Woodley has relished, mainly silencing his doubters with a mix of high-powered knockouts amongst a controversial decision win over Gastelum and his injury TKO victory over

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Quote: Tyron Woodley Is Scared, He’s Nowhere Near Conor McGregor

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley seems to have opened a huge can of worms. After winning the title by devastating knockout against Robbie Lawler at UFC 201, ‘The Chosen One’ snubbed Stephen Thompson. Looking more towards money fights, Woodley was following the path arguably made popular by the likes of Conor McGregor. ‘Wonderboy’s’ disappointment was

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Following a period of absence in waiting for the title shot Woodley felt he deserved, it’s interesting that he would turn down Thompson’s challenge. Many fans have levied severe criticism towards the new champ, but he’s not the first to look for these kinds of fights. As mentioned, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has been at it for 10 months now. After winning the 145-pound strap from Jose Aldo, ‘The Notorious’ wondered up the weight classes and may never return. The motivation? $$$.

The Difference

One obvious difference between McGregor and Woodley is the latter will put his tile on the line. ‘The Chosen One’ called out Nick Diaz and Georges St-Pierre after UFC 201. Whichever side of the fence you sit on, at the very minimum he’s defending his title. At the same time, Woodley’s choice of unranked fighters further pushes the contrast between legitimate sport and entertainment. Moving in to the new era of ownership for the UFC, the coming months could prove pivotal in the sport’s image going forward.

One fighter who is clearly hoping it remains rankings-based is Thompson. Speaking with our good friends over at Submission Radio, ‘Wonderboy’ sounds a little more blunt and less understanding than when this whole saga began.

“If I could have gone back, or if I could have gotten him in a room with closed doors, I would definitely let (Woodley) know at that time, you’re crazy. When you were a few months ago preaching how you deserve that fight, you deserve the fight, give it to you when you were ranked number FOUR and they still gave it to you. And now you’re doing this to me? It sounds like you’re a hypocrite, man. That’s just crazy talk. It sounds like to me you’re scared. You’re scared to fight me. Let’s do this, let’s go (laughs). I don’t know what else to say without throwing in a few cuss words.”

“Well as hard as he’s fighting it, it does seem that (He’s scared). If it was just the money – and it doesn’t seem like the UFC’s going to give it to him – okay, I’ll fight the number one contender. But now it’s going crazy. Now he’s throwing racism out there and now he’s just kind of going over and beyond of the whole situation, to be honest with you. And yeah man, it’s starting to seem that way. I mean, you’re the champion, you should be taking all newcomers – especially when you just get that belt. You have the belt of for thirty seconds and you’re already shutting me down, asking for a money fight? It doesn’t work that way pal.”

Thompson says Woodley is not McGregor…

“I knew for a fact that he was gonna say, “yeah man, let’s do it. Madison Square Garden, let’s go”. And then he hits me with the, “nah man. You wanted to fight Robbie, so you’re gonna fight Robbie. I’m gonna get a money fight”. I was like, are you…I was laughing, but in my head I was like, is this guy kidding? This guy’s gotta be kidding. You know, I was looking at Cormier and Cormier was looking at me. He’s like, “I’m pretty sure this guy’s serious, you need to go back at him”. And dude, I was like, what the heck, man?”

“It really surprised me. What champion doesn’t accept the number one contender? You know what I mean? That’s just how it goes. You defend that title a few times before you ever starting asking for a money fight. Come on, what’s going on? I mean, you hear Conor McGregor doing that, but Tyron’s nowhere near the level of Conor McGregor when it comes to marketing and popularity. He’s just not there. I think everybody else, the fans see that as well. And it upset not just me, but a lot of other fans and people who follow the UFC too.”

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