Exclusive | Tyron Woodley: “Colby Covington Is Trash in Wrestling… He Quit Early and Went Home.”
Tyron Woodley says a possible move into Real American Freestyle is tied as much to family and recovery as it is to competition. In an exclusive interview, the former UFC welterweight champion said he is interested in wrestling for RAF, but only if his knees are ready, while also taking a shot at rival Colby Covington’s wrestling after recalling time spent training together.
Tyron Woodley in RAF
Woodley framed the RAF idea as part of getting healthy and getting back on the mat with his son, who wrestles. He said that return matters to him because it helps him stay sharp enough to guide his son from direct experience rather than memory. He also said RAF has invited him to attend shows and discussed possible opponents with him, though he stopped short of saying a match is set.
“Part of it is me healing up so I can move the right way and sleep right. My son wrestles now, so I’m getting back in there to wrestle with him. I think I can help him more if I’m fresh in it myself. From there, RAF wanted me to come out to a couple of shows, and they gave me some options for people to wrestle. I’m interested. I support it. Whether I do it or not may come down to getting my knees ready.”
The timing makes sense on paper. RAF has positioned itself as a freestyle platform for wrestlers, MMA names, and other crossover athletes, and Covington is already part of that setup. The promotion describes itself as an unscripted pro wrestling league built around freestyle competition.
Tyron Woodley Slams Colby Covington
If Woodley does sign on, one obvious storyline is Covington. The two already share UFC history: Covington stopped Woodley in the fifth round of their September 2020 main event, and Covington’s UFC record stands at 17-5 with strong takedown numbers across his run. He also has a college wrestling background, with Iowa’s athletics site listing him on the 2008-09 roster and noting a 6-2 collegiate mark that season.
Still, Woodley made clear that he does not rate Covington highly as a wrestling opponent based on their past room work. He said he brought Covington in as a training partner during one of his camps and claimed the sessions were one-sided, adding that Covington left before camp was over. In an exclusive interview with Tim Wheaton of LowKick MMA, with the help of TalkSPORT BET, Woodley explained:
“I used to torture Colby in wrestling. A lot of people don’t know that. I brought Colby out as a training partner, and I used to play games with him. He never won a set. He never got a takedown. He ran from me through the whole camp, quit early, and went home. Long story short, Colby is trash in wrestling.”
Covington has long leaned on his wrestling identity in MMA and in RAF, where he recently competed and remains on the promotion’s roster. But Woodley, a two-time NCAA All-American at Missouri before his MMA title run, is selling a different memory behind closed doors.
