Tyron Woodley has recently been criticized by fans for saying that he would like to first defend his title against either Georges St-Pierre or Nick Diaz. Neither has fought in the Octagon in a long time, Diaz in eighteen months and former champion St-Pierre has been retired since 2013.

The main reason for the criticism is that before he was champion, Woodley campaigned for a title shot on the premise that he was the number one contender and had earned his way to a title shot.

Obviously, Diaz nor Georges St-Pierre are currently ranked in the division and are not even active fighters right now. However, Woodley recently explained to Fox Sports why he believes he should be able to hand pick who will get the first shot at his UFC welterweight title:

Think about Johny Hendricks. First time Johny Hendricks got his shot, he beat [John] Koscheck, he knocked out [Martin] Kampmann, he knocked out [Jon] Fitch, he beat Carlos Condit, Woodley said on his podcast, The Morning Wood. He got skipped over by who? Nick Diaz because he was a bigger draw. Think about Frankie Edgar. Completely wiped out the division. Did he get an immediate shot against Conor? Or was Conor able to jump weight classes? And then when that falls through, he gets to go and fight Nate Diaz. Loses the fight, is still the champion and rematches the guy.

This is not a sport anymore, folks, and I’m not entitled to give any super smiley [expletive] a shot because I won, and they’ve been watching some Conor McGregor videos and think they can talk me into a fight.

source: foxsports.com