Tyron Woodley Goes Off On Potential Georges St-Pierre-Conor McGregor Bout
Some people do not like the new era that the UFC is currently in. It’s all about making money fights that define top-tier stars rather than becoming a champion to become the next star.
UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is something of a throwback since winning the title at UFC 201 last July. Since becoming the champion, Woodley has defended the belt three times, each time against the top-ranked contender.
It’s not that Woodley hasn’t tried to chase down money fights because he has. If you recall, just hours after winning the title Woodley began calling out Georges St-Pierre, Conor McGregor, and Nick Diaz but those fights have evaded him.
St-Pierre is making his return to the octagon after an almost four-year layoff, but instead of attempting to reclaim his title, St-Pierre is moving up a weight class to challenge Michael Bisping for the middleweight title at UFC 217.
On the most recent edition of his The Morning Wood Show podcast (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting), the champ doubled down on his assertions.
“Some guys have medium speed, medium power, good wrestling, good attacks. I’ve been blessed to have maximum speed, maximum explosion, maximum power, and then [Din Thomas] and Duke [Roufus] have helped me add the other stuff, economy of motion, knowing when to explode, when not to explode, how to fight five rounds. . .
“They don’t want them problems, man. He had a chance to fight me, and he said no. Georges has been away for three years, almost four. By the time he gets in there, it’s gonna be just a few days shy of four years, so the sport has caught up. Whatever advantage he had, whatever degree of separation he created by being such a great martial artist, people have played catchup. I think I’ve surpassed him. He was a person I looked up to but skill for skill, mindset, explosion, power, wrestling ability, timing, strategy, all those things, I feel like I’ve surpassed Georges and that’s why I want to go out there to fight him and prove it.”
Rumors have been running rampant that St-Pierre and his team have the UFC lightweight champion in their sights as the next possible opponent for “GSP” after the middleweight title fight. It should be noted that St-Pierre has denied the rumors for his part though he did not rule it out entirely.
It’s safe to say that if GSP wins at UFC 217 then a McGregor call out becomes odd as the most obvious weight for that fight to happen at would be 170 pounds due to the fact that cGregor has fought there twice before
“No, that’s a disrespect to me. [St-Pierre] probably [will call out McGregor], but he’s gonna have to be honest with the fans and say, ‘I’m here for money.” And that’s okay. There’s no shame in that. . . Just know I’m gonna call him out on that. Win, lose, or draw, I’m gonna want to fight the winner of that fight, Bisping or Georges. Then I’m going to want to come back and see all this fresh new talent in the welterweight division and I’m gonna want to show them a lesson too.”
“He’s smart. He’s a PPV king. He already did what he needed to do in the welterweight division. Win or lose, it’s not gonna do anything to tarnish his career against Bisping and also he wants to make money.”
