Tyron Woodley believes his game plan worked to a tee against Demian Maia.
Last night (July 29), Woodley defended his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight title against Maia. “The Chosen One” didn’t allow the challenger to score a single takedown on 24 attempts. That was the key to his unanimous decision victory.
The champion explained to Megan Olivi what went right in the fight:
“I took away his ability to fight to the ground. He wasn’t able to take me down, he wasn’t able to utilize his jiu-jitsu. He was forced to stand in front of me, take shots and I was faster I was stronger as I said I would be. You gotta realize the dude got 19 victories (in the UFC). Had he come up with a victory today, he would’ve tied (Michael) Bisping for the top 20 victories in the UFC. So he’s not anyone to take lightly.”
Woodley is no stranger to fighting exceptional grapplers. He talked about switching things up to avoid mistakes he made in the past.
“I fought two similar opponents. I fought Andre Galvao, who at the time was the best grappler in the world. I respected him, but I came and took it to him. That was the fight when I knocked him out. Then I fought Jake Shields. He shot 18 shots, came up short 18 times and I didn’t make him pay every time he shot. I came up short in that fight, so this fight I wanted to do a combination of both.”
