Dana White: Tyron Woodley Has A Ways To Go, He Chokes In The Big Fights
Dana White didn’t attend the UFC 174 post-fight presser last night (Sat., June 14, 2014), but that didn’t stop him from giving his take on what was deemed a thoroughly lackluster card from the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani courtesy of FOX Sports, the UFC President not surprisingly derided the poor performance of Tyron Woodley, who put on a puzzlingly poor performance in a very lopsided decision loss to Rory MacDonald in the night’s co-main event. White’s thoughts on Woodley’s performance after urging ‘The Chosen One’ to put on a show in Vancouver:
“He choked in the big fight tonight. He needed to come out and try to rip that head off in the third round and he didn’t even do that. He threw a few punches, missed and didn’t knock him out. He just sort of sat back into the way he fought the rest of the fight. He got beat tonight. He got beat mentally. He got beat physically. Tyron’s got a ways to go. He seems like he chokes in the big fights.”
Some strong words from the understandably frustrated president. Woodley campaigned for and received a huge bout against Carlos Condit at March’s UFC 171, capitalizing with a solid showing before ‘The Natural Born Killer’ badly tore his ACL while getting taken down.
Woodley proceeded to talk a large amount of trash, saying that it was he who deserved the next title shot at injured champion Johny Hendricks. However, he couldn’t even mount any offense when he stepped into the cage against MacDonald, let alone fight on the grand stage for a title.
Fighters who freeze up in big fights, like Jake Ellenberger did against MacDonald last July, are not usually respected by White and UFC matchmakers Joe Silva and Sean Shelby too much. Woodley is most likely destined for a very long climb back up the rankings, and with his wildly inconsistent track record, it may or may not work out in his favor.
What’s next for ‘The Chosen One?’ Did he squander his one opportunity to make it big in the UFC by running his mouth and failing to deliver on his lofty promises?
