Tyron Woodley Faces Potential Surgery For Broken Foot
Top-ranked UFC welterweight Tyron Woodley recently picked up his fourth win in five fights when he beat The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 17 winner Kelvin Gastelum with a close decision in the co-main event of last Saturday night’s (Jan. 31, 2015) UFC 183 from Las Vegas.
But the win wasn’t without its own controversy, as Gastelum missed by weight by an astonishing 9 pounds and was forced to give 30 percent of his purse to “The Chosen One.” The classy Woodley declined to accept that money after the win, yet now he has a whole different set of issues to deal with before his next high-profile bout.
Apparently he broke his foot early on against Gastelum, which could have explained why he wasn’t quite as explosive as he usually is. Woodley discussed the injury with a recent appearance on Inside MMA:
“You know I think I broke my foot on the first initial kick of the entire fight, Usually when someone blocks a head kick, they put their hand up, they take their other hand, they kind of scale it down their arm to block. I think he lifted his arm directly up and I really think I kicked his elbow pretty hard.”
According to “The Chosen One,” he doesn’t quite know when he will be able to return, as that will all rest on whether or not he has to undergo surgery for the ailment:
“I talked to the UFC and they told me to find the best foot doctor that I could possibly get so I went to the guys that the St. Louis Blues and the St. Louis Rams use and I found the best foot specialists. I’ve had X-rays, it’s broken in two places, one place looks to be displaced, so they CAT scanned it yesterday they’re going to be in touch with me tomorrow to let me know if I can just cast it and let it heal naturally or if they need to do a small surgery where they have to put a pin in there and basically put it back in position. So once I find that out, they’ll give me a better timeframe.”
Woodley chose a positive mindset through his recovery, noting that he’ll be able to improve other skills:
“I’m always a fast healer, I never really let it get down to me. Maybe this is my opportunity to work on some other points of my game that need strengthening, and I’ll just take the time to do that.”
Woodley could potentially be out until May or June, and a rematch with returning former foe Carlos Condit could be a blockbuster match-up for him to come back to.
Photo Credit: Tom Szczerbowski for USA TODAY Sports
