Din Thomas wants Woodley vs. Colby Covington next, and retirement not to…

It’s a bit strange, at first, to hear coach Din Thomas talk about how his charge Tyron Woodley needed to and did indeed shut up and fight leading up to and during his most recent successful welterweight world title defense, at UFC 228 this past September where he dominated and finished Darren Till in the second round. After all, Thomas himself is far from quiet and shy.

The retired former world-class fighter turned elite MMA trainer out of Florida’s American Top Team is also a co-host of a television show alongside Matt Serra and UFC president Dana White, performs improv, and is a radio broadcaster. Furthermore, he’s never shied away from discussing the types of important societal issues in discussion with me in the past that Woodley himself is known to speak of in public, such as racism, systemic oppression, and labor rights.

Yet, immediately after Woodley’s latest victory I listened as Thomas said publicly what sounded a bit like White’s own frequent and irrational criticisms of Woodley – that people only like Woodley when he keeps his mouth shut, that he should just focus on beating people up and not on speaking up for what he thinks is right.

Sure, Thomas must have a heck of a balancing act to perform being friends and co-workers on the show with White while also being the head coach for a fighter who White routinely trashes. Still, I wondered if, when Thomas spoke about Woodley needing to shut his mouth and fight, he had a slightly different angle on the subject.

Thomas has said in the past that Woodley does indeed notice and pay attention to the criticism he gets from fans, often absurd in its reasoning and usually parroting the narrative the UFC’s promoter White has already established. Whatever one’s feelings on such discussions, it can’t be helpful to a fighter to be so aware of and focused on the negativity.

When Thomas encouraged Woodley to largely keep quiet leading up to his win over Till, was the coach largely doing so merely to help focus the champ on things he could control, instead of veering off into obsessing over things he could not?

That’s pretty much it but there is a little more to it, Thomas tells me.

What it really comes down to is this – Tyron is a really good guy. He’s a people person, a community guy. The reality is that a lot of MMA fans don’t relate to him, though. Whenever Tyron speaks, they can’t relate to him and it comes out as whining. The only thing he can do to always get people behind him is to beat people up. The fans have always responded well to him when he’s winning. Getting fans is what he wants. He wants everyone to be on his team. If you want everyone to be on your team, you can’t talk them into it.

That’s certainly true. If ever a fighter could fight his or her way into popularity, however, Woodley would be such a warrior.

Handsome, chiseled, well-spoken, free of scandal, and big on family time and community service, Woodley also just happens to have been the UFC’s most active champion for large stretches, as well as one of the best and most exciting finishers the sport has ever seen.

Woodley hasn’t lost a fight in over four years, and he has a higher finishing rate (as a percentage of overall career wins) than one of the sport’s most popular fighters and former welterweight and middleweight champ Georges St-Pierre. And, here’s the thing – Woodley is quite popular.

Woodley appears in movies as an actor and on television regularly as an analyst, and seems to have sparked additional interest from new black fans in the UFC and the sport with his success, along with fellow dominant champion, focus of White’s derision, and UFC cast-aside Demetrious Johnson. Despite Woodley’s obvious appeal to Hollywood and scores of fans, there are certain segments who seem seemed destined to never appreciate the 36-year-old in his own time.

Most of the so-called fans in that category would seem to be white, like the UFC’s president and leadership are, and like most fans of the sport on the whole are. Though Thomas didn’t bring up the topic of race, he can’t deny its importance when I raise the issue.

We can’t not talk about this. We have to talk about this, even though whenever you do talk about it, many people don’t understand or react negatively to it. But, it exists, and to ignore it only makes the problem worse, he allows.

Everything comes down to relatability. Let’s be real – MMA is still a very white sport. It is a very white sport, whether we want to accept it or not. When Chuck Liddell was knocking people out, to white people, he looks like the guys they hang out with. ‘That’s my guy!’ Sport is marketed towards that – relatability –and sport is attracted towards that. We have to accept that.

So, when you have a guy like Tyron Woodley – a black guy – many fans are automatically not going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think it’s hate. I just think they don’t relate to him automatically, because he’s black.

What Thomas seems to be saying is that when someone who looks like you talks about issues like athlete pay and treatment, or discrimination, and police abuse, you might be more inclined to see things from their perspective, believing it to be your own or similar to it. When someone who doesn’t look like you speaks out in those ways, however, it may be harder for you to empathize with and relate to their experiences and perspective, making you far less likely to sympathize or cheer for them.

What Thomas doesn’t say, but I will, is the fact that Woodley is usually knocking around opponents a few shades lighter than he may also contribute to the white MMA fan majority’s apparent reluctance to accept the all-time great. In any case, Thomas clearly understands that Woodley always had an up-hill battle when it came to winning over certain fans, regardless of what he’s accomplished in the cage.

So, when he talks about an issue, whether its racism, or fighter pay, or the way the UFC promotes fighters or treats fighters, many fans just think he’s complaining because they are not willing to look at it from his perspective, he continues.

They think, ‘man, shut up, we don’t want to hear it.’ So, you’ve got people who feel they can’t relate to him because he’s black and now they’re hating on him for addressing these issues because they don’t see things from his perspective.

The misguided, insubstantial criticism we hear first from Dana White, and then later in online message boards, Twitter, and even from some analysts who should know better, does seem to be consciously or unconsciously affected by Woodley’s blackness. The UFC has a poor track record of successfully promoting black athletes who don’t fit into black stereotypes, after all.

With that said, no matter how clueless or unintentionally uncomfortable the promotion may or may not be when it comes to figuring out how to market black athletes, one thing they have always been virulently and consciously opposed to are athletes of any hue speaking up and out about labor issues.

In fact, it was only when Woodley began voicing criticism of the UFC on those fronts that White began consistently spewing his incoherent venom at the fighter and disrespecting him publicly in a largely successful attempt to skew coverage of and the discursive about the fighter.

Thomas has nothing negative to say about either his athlete or White, who he is quick to praise. He does, however, see how White’s own passion and hard work, combined with emotional sensitivity, have affected the promoter’s rhetorical treatment of Woodley.

Tyron Woodley and Dana White are two of the hardest working people I know, Thomas continues.

When people speak badly about the UFC, I’m sure it hurts Dana’s feelings. People don’t know how much Dana White has done for the UFC and how hard he’s worked, and how much he has sacrificed.

Is the UFC perfect? No, and they know that it isn’t perfect. They still employ a lot of people and give fighters opportunities to make a living. I’ve seen Dana operate and he’s a really good dude, but he can’t do everything.

Woodley, on the other hand, has indeed done just about everything he could have done in the sport after transitioning from collegiate wrestling, according to his coach. Though Thomas believes Woodley is at the top of his game right now, he doesn’t believe that there is too much left for his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt to accomplish in MMA.

I asked Thomas what, if he had his way, he’d like to see be next for Woodley. First up, according to Dinero, another grudge match against a fellow American Top Team fighter would be nice.

In my opinion, Colby Covington has earned the right to fight Tyron, he reasons. He’s certainly talked his way into the fight and earned his way into fighting for the title. He’s beaten everyone they put in front of him to earn the right at the real title, as opposed to the interim title.

After that, Thomas wouldn’t mind seeing his guy ride off into the sunset and move onto bigger things in the world.

As far as what I’d like to see Tyron do, next, I’d like to see him maybe win a couple more fights then raise up, he explains. He’s done what he needs to do in the sport. He deserves to show the world that he’s gifted at more than punching people in the head.

About the author:

Elias Cepeda writes a weekly column for The UG Feed; you can find Elias on Twitter @EliasCepeda.