Following his fourth consecutive title defense at UFC 228: Woodley vs. Till, UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley has plenty of options moving forward.
“The Chosen One,” who has more consecutive title defenses than any other active UFC Champion right now, spoke about some of those options after his second round submission victory over Darren Till (watch video highlights) at Saturday night’s UFC 228 post-fight press conference.
While the belief is former interim UFC Welterweight Champion Colby Covington is next in line, with Kamaru Usman waiting in the wings, Woodley made it clear that he would still entertain a fight against UFC Welterweight legend and former two-division UFC Champion Georges St-Pierre.
Video: UFC 228 Post-Fight Press Conference From Dallas, Texas – https://t.co/4QVrF6hZ6i
— MMA News (@mmanews_com) September 9, 2018
“It’s always appealed to me but I’m not going to keep calling out a guy that’s already had nine title defenses, ran over the division, he stepped away from the sport, he came back, he made it very obvious that he wanted to fight certain types of fights and it didn’t look like he wanted to fight me,” said Woodley on Saturday night in Dallas, Texas. “At one point, I thought I needed to beat him to be the greatest because who’s going to say he’s not the greatest welterweight of all time. He beat the best welterweights in the world. It wasn’t like he was just running through guys that was horrible. He was beating stud after stud after stud and he really separated himself from everybody else. So I watched him do that for so long and I always envisioned fighting him and I always envisioned beating him. I told myself I had to beat him to be the greatest but I don’t.”
Woodley continued, explaining how the level of talent in the UFC today makes his reign as king of the 170-pound division as impressive as anyone else in the history of the sport.
“This sport is different,” Woodley explained. “These guys are better. They’re more well-rounded, they punch hard, they’re faster and they’ve been training at a younger age. It’s not a wrestler who just learned how to punch. Everybody can do everything now. So I think the fact that I’ve been able to beat the last specialists in the game, beat the up and coming rising star, beat Robbie Lawler, who’s one of the most vicious fighters we’ve ever seen with two title fights that I think are probably in the top 10 of title fights of all time. It don’t take much more to solidify that spot.”
At the end of the day, Woodley doesn’t seem to think GSP wants anything to do with a fight against him.
“But if he wants to fight me, of course I’m going to fight Georges St-Pierre,” said Woodley. “I just don’t think he has to, I don’t think he has any interest in it and I’m kind of over it at this point.”
UFC 228 Video Highlights: Woodley Submits Till After Dominant Performance – https://t.co/ATI9amfc06
— MMA News (@mmanews_com) September 9, 2018
Do you think a Tyron Woodley vs. Georges St-Pierre fight will ever happen? Should it? Who do you think Woodley should fight next? Sound off in the Comments section below.
