Tyron Woodley isn’t messing around for his UFC return.
The former UFC welterweight champion appeared on today’s (Mon., August 5, 2019) episode of ‘Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show’ to discuss his return to the Octagon. “The Chosen One” suffered a discouraging loss to current champion Kamaru Usman at March’s UFC 235.
Since then he’s been on the sidelines recovering from a thumb injury. His return remains unknown. But Woodley said he will be physically ready to fight yet this year. However, if it makes more sense for him to sit out and potentially fight the winner of the upcoming Usman vs. Colby Covington title fight, he will:
“Physically, I’ll be prepared to fight this year. If it comes down to the point it makes more sense for me to sit back and spectate and pick up the winner of this next fight, obviously that’s going to make the most sense because it’s all about getting to the title, getting back to the title, getting the title, winning the title, keeping the title.”
A Big Reveal
But when he does return, he’s going to train with one of the all-time greats. Woodley revealed he has been and would be training at Montreal’s TriStar Gym with Firas Zahabi:
“I’m gonna drop some premier stuff today. I haven’t even announced it on social media. People are gonna hear something for the first time here today. When you were doing your exercise in the cardio room, I wasn’t supposed to be there, I was supposed to be at a different gym.
“That didn’t work out. The person I was training with literally Uber’d to me and then you walk into the room and randomly you see Tyron Woodley training with one of the greatest trainers of all-time, Firas Zahabi. You hear inklings and drippings about me training with Georges St-Pierre.”
The Greatest
Woodley dove into his training session with Zahabi, noting that the famed trainer dove into the smaller things of the fight game with him:
“I thought we were just shadow boxing, kind of moving around lightly. But he actually, with no ego and no pride, he took his time out of his day, he had fighters fighting that day and he really took the time to work on the minor things. When you at this level, it’s about the millimeters. We just bounced ideas, it was a phenomenal session.”
Woodley was ultimately very thankful for his opportunity to train with both Zahabi and St-Pierre. He confirmed he will indeed be training with “GSP” going forward, deeming it an opportunity he simply cannot pass up:
“It was a blessing to be able to do this, it was a blessing to be able to train with Georges St-Pierre, yes people, I will be training with Georges St-Pierre, we will not fight, that’s very obvious. There’s no point for me not to training with one of the greatest, arguably the greatest welterweight of all-time and sharpen myself. That’s something that’s motivating me.”
Will training with GSP propel Woodley back to championship status in the stacked welterweight division?
