Tyron Woodley: Stephen Thompson Is In For Rude Awakening

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UFC welterweight champion Tyron “The Chosen” One Woodley put his title on the line against No. 1-contender Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson at last November’s UFC 205. After a five round back-and-forth war, Woodley retained his title, although the judges deemed the bout a majority draw.

Due to the controversial conclusion, the two have exchanged words through the media since with Thompson actively campaigning for a rematch. It was announced earlier this week that the two will indeed fight for a second time in the main event of March 4’s UFC 209 from Las Vegas, Nevada.

With the rematch now set in stone, Woodley admits that Thompson has gotten under his skin over the last few months:

“He got under my skin so much that I’m just going to go ahead and fight the dude,” Woodley said on the newest edition of “The Morning Wood Show” podcast. “He got under my skin that bad where I don’t even care about the ration and the money and what fight makes the most sense. You need to be careful what you ask for. ‘Wonderboy,’ if you want it, come get it. You want to fight? You want to get done worse than you did the first time? Some people have got to be real careful.”

As far as the first fight goes, many feel as if it was an extremely close bout, while many feel as if Thompson should have had his hand raised at the end as well. Woodley, however, feels as if he clearly won the fight:

“Two rounds were completely lopsided, and three rounds outside of that were very close,” he continued. “He never dominated a single round of that fight. So now if you can tell me I did not win either Round 2, Round 3 or Round 5, then I would agree he deserves a rematch. But I do believe I won Round 3. I do believe Round 1 or 4 would be a 10-8. Then on a third category, some people would have stopped that fight. There are three ways I could have won that fight.”

“The Chosen One” appears to be fired up as well as confident heading into the rematch and he warned “Wonderboy” that he’s in for a ‘rude awakening’:

“He’s going to get in that octagon, and he’s going to be in for a rude awakening because if he thought that was something the last time, I’m going all the way up,” Woodley said. “I want him to tremble when I walk past him and him have a flashback of when I knocked him to the canvas and he woke up and the referee was counting ‘A-B-C, 1-2-3’ with him. I’m just tired of these guys that just feel entitled.”

Who do you see walking away with 170-pound gold when Woodley and Thompson lock horns again in March?