Tyron Woodley talks being champ champ champ
Tyron Woodley: “Those are three different weight classes that I could fight in and be extremely competitive in all of them.”
The culture of extreme weight cutting is the most dangerous readily solvable issue in mixed martial arts. You can’t make two people trying to hurt each safe, but you can stop forcing athletes to bring their bodies to the point of collapse the day before the most intense physical and mental exertion in sports.
One of the rational steps in weight cutting reform is adding more weight divisions. The jump from 170 to 185 is huge, and the jump from 185 to 205, where fighters are dropping from 230, is crazier still. For legacy reasons, the 170 welterweight division is hard to let go. However, UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is okay with it. In fact, he likes the idea, and would go after multiple belts.
I heard they were thinking about that, said Woodley to Dave Doyle for MMA Fighting. I don’t know which one I would do. I mean, I could make 165, it wouldn’t be very sexy, but I could make it. And obviously, 175 would be a little easier to make than 170. I make 175 and I could make 185, too. Those are three different weight classes that I could fight in and be extremely competitive in all of them.
I would love to fight in a different division, you know? I walk around at 200 pounds, only having to drop 15 pounds wouldn’t be a bad look for me at all.
“Any time I’ve ever taken to speaking about who I want to fight, it’s never taken the right way. My goal and the way I am going to become the greatest of all-time, is dominating, and annihilating whoever is in front of me, whoever that is.
Next fight for Woodley is a gigantic Darren Till on Saturday at UFC 228 on Saturday, September 8, at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
