Tyron Woodley Plans On Whooping Rory MacDonald, Sending Message To Johny Hendricks
UFC welterweight contender Tyron Woodley returned to action at UFC 171 with a TKO win over Carlos Condit; ‘The Natural Born Killer’ suffered a torn ACL in the second round of their Dallas scrap, and Woodley moved to 3-1 for the UFC and one step closer to a title shot with the win. Although with Johny Hendricks injured, a shot at the belt was not on the table.
What was on offer was a new eight fight contract for ‘The Chosen One’, and a UFC 174 showdown with Rory MacDonald. Set to be headlined by Demetrious Johnson vs. Ali Bagautinov, 174 will go down in Vancouver, Canada, meaning ‘Ares’ will have home advantage; speaking with MMAFighting.com, T-Wood says that he isn’t bothered about fighting MacD on home soil:
“Usually I don’t like to give up the home court advantage to anyone,” Woodley told MMA Fighting. “For me it’s like, I feel what Johny Hendricks was feeling where he had to continue to prove…and continue to prove…and continue prove himself. So I got to go up there and whoop this young dude’s butt in his backyard and send a distinctive, clear message in front of his judges, in front of his crowd, and I’ll do it and that’s one way to assure they don’t deny me a shot at Johny Hendricks.”
Considering Hendricks built up a 10-1 promotional record before getting his title shot, I can’t say that Woodley’s efforts hold a candle to how much ‘Bigg Rigg’ had to prove. I think the timing of his fight with current #2 Rory MacDonald, as well as an impressive win will be the biggest factors in Woodley potentially getting the shot.
“Rory’s the kind of guy, I can imagine him in school, he was probably picked on, and he probably just can’t take a joke,” Woodley says. “I’m the opposite. Like there was a comedian, Adam Hunter, who does that fake text message exchange [on Fox Sports]. And he joked me, and I thought it was hilarious. He said, ‘Joe Rogan says Tyron’s been working on his cardio, he promises not to gas on the way to the cage.’ So I thought that was hilarious, but I don’t think Rory would be able to take a joke like that.””
Woodley then talks about the time that MacDonald wouldn’t fight for the title because his training partner GSP was the champion:
“I told him, Rory, I want to fight you because you’re one of the top welterweights,” he says. “Take it as a privilege, and take it as me showing you respect. I want to be a world champion. I said, don’t take it as I don’t like you or that I’m taking digs at you, I want to fight you because you’re at where I want to be at, in the top two to fives. You are fighting these top guys and beating them but you don’t want to fight for the title, so I want to fight you because I want to fight for the title and you don’t.”
“But now that [his training partner] GSP is out I think he does, and I think it’s going to be a harder fight for me because now he thinks, damn, I can go in there and try to win this title. But, I’ll tell you, I don’t plan on going up there to get whooped.”
T-Wood certainly has a way with words, and his fighting style is becoming more well-rounded every fight; but does he have what it takes to topple Johny Hendricks from the number one spot? Rory MacDonald will certainly have his work cut out if he is still having trouble with power punchers, as Woodley has got some serious fire in his fists.
As ‘Bigg Rigg’ awaits his return from injury, MacDonald and Woodley could be one of the most influential welterweight bouts this year.
Photo: Gary Vasquez of USA Today Sports
