Tyron Woodley hadn’t been the biggest fan-favorite champion in the UFC.
Woodley captured the 170-pound title in dramatic fashion, knocking out Robbie Lawler cold in the first round. In his first title defense, he went to a Majority Draw with Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. The fight was very eventful and intense.
The rematch, however, was very disappointing. Neither man pushed the action, but for whatever reason, Woodley took most of the blame. He then fought jiu-jitsu specialist Demian Maia.
Despite many believing Woodley could’ve ended the fight at any time with his power, the bout was extremely uneventful. Woodley coasted to a unanimous decision win in an extremely boring title fight. After these performances, many began hoping Woodley would lose the welterweight title.
In fact, many picked Darren Till to dethrone him at UFC 228 this past weekend. Instead, a big punch planted Till down in the second round, and Woodley subsequently forced the Englishman to tap. It was the most exciting performance Woodley has put on in quite some time.
Din Thomas’ Take
Woodley’s coach, Din Thomas, joined The MMA Hour recently to discuss the negative perception of Tyron Woodley MMA fans had the past few years. Here’s what Thomas had to say (via MMA Fighting):
“I think that people are starting to realize,” Thomas said. “Here’s what I think, I’m going to be honest with you, I think that people were just upset with Tyron. I don’t think that they ever didn’t think he could fight.
“I think they were just upset with him because they know what he’s capable of – I mean, up until the second Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson fight — Tyron was just tearing people up until that fight. Then those two fights, I think he just disappointed people and they were upset with him, and that’s when they started really badmouthing him.
“And the fact that he was coming out and just kinda complaining about his position in the game, I think that really just kinda exacerbated everybody’s view of him, and just, ‘You know what, we don’t like this guy.’
“But I think his performance on Saturday and his stance now that, ‘Listen, I don’t care who you put in front of me, I’m just going to fight,’ I think that’s what people want from Tyron and I think that’s what turned everybody’s opinion of him around.”
Discussion: What do you make of Thomas’ comments? Let us know in the comments section below!
