Tyron Woodley may currently be on the sidelines with an injury, but that hasn’t stopped him observing the MMA landscape.
Woodley, who has been suffering a shoulder injury since his bout with Demian Maia at UFC 214, has declared himself fit to return and he doesn’t care who it is against. With Rafael Dos Anjos and Colby Covington meeting for the interim belt soon – the logical idea is that Woodley will fight the winner of that contest.
Woodley, however, wants to fight in the summer which will make the turnaround of the interim fight difficult for the eventual winner. During a recent edition of “The Hollywood Beatdown,” Woodley revealed when he’ll be ready to return:
“I want to fight in July or August if those guys are ready,” Woodley said.
“I am not waiting on the boo-boo belt, I’m not waiting on somebody else to be ready. I’m not going to be in shape and prepared to step in, I’m the champion of the world. They’re supposed to be ready to fight me” stated Woodley.
Woodley who has defended his title three times, twice against Stephen Thompson and once against Damien Maia, has been looking for a big money fight in recent times. The Missouri native called out both GSP and Nate Diaz, the champion had some very choice words for both individuals.
“Let me say this in a very educated way, I think that those two guys [St-Pierre and Nate Diaz] contemplating fighting each-other is the biggest b—ch move on the planet.”
St-Pierre, who beat Michael Bisping for the middleweight title last year but vacated the belt not long after, is currently on the sidelines with an injury with an unknown return date and Nate Diaz hasn’t fought in the UFC since his split decision loss to Conor McGregor at UFC 202 in August of 2016. Both have been rumored to throw down at 155lbs.
“If you’re going to be the welterweight champion of the world and the lineal champion and you’ve got the current champion constantly talking about fighting you, not only do you avoid him and go up a weight class, now you’re going to drop beneath him and fight in a weight class you’ve never even fought in” Woodley said about GSP.
Woodley then spoke about Nate Diaz: “I was going to fight him in December without even having shoulder surgery. So the question mark to me is are you fans really going to keep riding with these guys who claim they’ll fight anytime anywhere but are constantly avoiding me?”
With the rumors about GSP vs. Diaz continuing to swirl and an interim title bout yet to occur, Tyron Woodley is coming back to a very up-in-the-air division.
Do you think Tyron Woodley will ever get the “money fight” he desires?
