Woodley explains tactical game plan vs. Maia

UFC middleweight champion Tyron Woodley won the title, defended it twice against the best striker in the division, and defended it once against the best grappler in the division, all in exactly 365 days. But he did so in a tactical manner.

Maia won seven in a row by taking his opponents down and tapping them out. Maia tried 24 times to take Woodley down at UFC 214 on Saturday night, and each time the former Div I wrestler slipped and stuffed away. Woodley also outstruck Maia 45-23, but the combined 68 punches crush the record for lowest number of strikes in a 5 Round title fight. By contrast, Nate Diaz landed 252 of 435 and Conor McGregor landed 197 of 322 in their rematch. And while the crowd screamed in ecstasy for Diaz-McGregor, they loudly booed Woodley vs. Maia.

Woodley fought a smart fight, and won. The problem is that mixed martial arts is not a real sport. In the NFL, if you sell more jerseys, that doesn’t help you get in the Superbowl. In MMA, popularity with fans matters. It directly affects fighter income via PPV points, and it affects who gets the fights they want. Still, Woodley won.

I thought it was a great performance, said Woodley, as transcribed by Alexander K. Lee for MMA Fighting. You’ve got a guy on a seven-fight win streak, he’s taken out all seven opponents, world class guys, gotten on their backs, submitted them. Very resilient, very persistent on his attack – how many takedowns did he try? Twenty-four tried, 24 denied. So I think we need to look at the different stats.

This is my fourth title fight in 12 months. He shot 24 times and think of how many different top class welterweights he would have been able to put on the ground. He was not able to do any of that on me. I felt good, I felt my conditioning was great. We accepted this fight four weeks ago and I felt amazing. Sometimes I think those shorter camps are better.

I felt like I was gonna finish him, I threw an overhand right – in the first or second round, my shoulder slipped out and I was like, ‘Oh, s***.’ I can’t hit him with this overhand right, which is my moneymaker, so I had to throw straight punches. A couple of other times after that, I saw an opening and I had to throw it just out of reaction. I threw it again, it kind of slipped out, so two or three times I felt like my shoulder kind of slipped out.

So I had to be really disciplined to use a lot of feints and if you guys saw me, a couple of times you saw me come forward and look like I was going to throw the right hand, and I had to really second guess whether I should throw it or not, or just proceed with pushing forward. That’s what champions do… I’m very happy with my conditioning, and very happy in my coaching and game plan. It’s just the mental toughness.

Nothing distracts me when I’m in there. You can boo. I’ve never seen a boo enter the Octagon and help my opponent double team me. I’ve never seen it help them get the victory. I’ve never seen it take me off my rocker. I’ve gotta be focused like flint, because this is the best division in the world.

I know our fans, they want to see blood, they want to see cuts, they want to see a back-and-forth exchange. You also have to recognize that I’m fighting specialists.

Stephen Thompson, I’m not going to sit out there and try to out-spin-kick him. I’m not going to try to take down Demian Maia and prove that, ‘Hey, it’s time for me to get a black belt, the brown belt is gonna to take you down and go for the submissions.’ So I felt like it was a very tactical fight, I felt like I did everything, stuck to the gameplan, and I walk around with my head up and the belt still around my waist.

Woodley rightly noted that that lack of action was to a degree due to fighting specialists, and said he looked forward to fighting GSP, who can fight everywhere.

“I’m the best in the world, man,” said Woodley, as transcribed by Chisanga Malata for The Sun. “I’ve fought two specialists, back-to-back. So I’m excited to fight a freestyle fighter and take on Georges St-Pierre on November 4 at Madison Square Garden.”

Mixed martial arts is not a real sport and GSP hasn’t fought since 2013. He won a split decision over Johny Hendricks in his last fight and decisions before that over Nick Diaz, Carlos Condit, Jake Shields, Josh Koscheck, and Dan Hardy. All those fighters have dropped in the rankings; there is no reason to believe GSP got far better without fighting. When he does finally appear in the official rankings, it’s wildly unlikely he will be the #1 contender. But he got a title shot anyway, because it will make money. But the UFC does not believe Woodley vs. GSP will make money, so it’s not happening.

At the post-fight press conference, White said GSP was instead fighting Michael Bisping.

Cause I know Michael Bisping will fight,” said White, as transcribed by Damon Martin for MMA Weekly. “Michael Bisping will show up and fight. So yeah, I’m going to give it to him.

White named the round he changed his mind.

F***ing round five, he said. It definitely affected this fight, that’s for sure. I know Michael Bisping will show up and fight. No doubt about it.

You ask fans if they want to see Woodley fight again. I think that would be flat out no. Who wants to pay to see Tyron Woodley fight again? He is an absolute physical specimen. The guy could have finished that fight at any time he wanted to, but he didn’t want to take the risks.

You take no risks, you get no rewards.