Woodley predicts three big lightweight fights
Tyron Woodley: “All the dudes that think they want a shot at the strap, they’ve got to go through him, and ain’t nobody do it yet.”
UFC middleweight champion Tyron Woodley recently held an Instagram Q&A, and addressed the fight between #1 challenger Stephen Thompson and undefeated Englishman Darren ‘The Gorilla’ Till, ranked #7.
‘Wonderboy’ the gatekeeper.” He’ll do all my light work for me,” said Woodley, as transcribed by Mike Bohn for MMAjunkie. “All the dudes that think they want a shot at the strap, they’ve got to go through him, and ain’t nobody do it yet. I think Thompson [will win] man, to be honest. I know I’ve talked a lot of trash about Thompson, more in light joking. But Thompson is a very difficult puzzle to figure out. And it took me a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of training partners to figure him out.
I just don’t think Till has what it takes to take him out. With that said, I’ve got to go with ‘Wonderboy,’ even though he’s never said I was going to win a fight. But I’m just going to be a real guy and be honest: I think he’s going to win.
Woodley is currently recovering from surgery, and in the meantime, big things are happening in the division. Thompson vs. Till takes place on May 27, 2018 in the main event of UFC Fight Night 130. #2 Rafael dos Anjos vs. #3 Colby Covington for the interim belt takes place on May 12 at UFC 224. And #7 Kamaru Usman fights #10 Santiago Ponzinibbio on May 19 in the main event of UFC Fight Night 129.
I think Usman’s probably going to do his thing against Ponzinibbio, said Woodley. Ponzinibbio is tough, though – crazy striker, really big for the weight class, a lot of punches thrown with cruel intent. It’s hard to say [who wins] in that fight.
RDA or Queefington? That’s a tough fight to say. RDA, I don’t know why he’s even taking the fight. He could have fought me next. A roll of the dice. I told him I could fight in July, so if he wants to fight this fight in between in May and risk getting passed up on his title shot, then that’s his bad.
I don’t even want to talk about who I want next because any time I mention a fighter, for some reason people have a different approach about it. I would rather just go out there and whoop everybody’s ass one by one. Whoever you guys and the UFC decides I’m going to fight next, that’s the person who is going to get the biz, and after that there’s not going to be nobody left.
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