Tyron Woodley ‘Not Impressed’ By Rafael Dos Anjos

Last month, former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos scored a dominant victory over ex-welterweight titleholder Robbie Lawler. The win marked three in a row for dos Anjos, and it may have earned him a title shot.

170-pound champion Tyron Woodley, however, wasn’t impressed:

“Was it a good performance?” Woodley told MMA Fighting on Friday. “If I had Robbie Lawler against the Octagon like that, would he have been alive or would he have been knocked the f*ck out? He’d have been knocked out.”

“I wasn’t really impressed,” he added. “I wasn’t impressed.”

Woodley, one of the hardest hitters in the division, feels as if his power is on a different level than dos Anjos’, while once again adding that the Brazilian’s win over Lawler wasn’t ‘that great of a performance’:

“I just think when you come to this welterweight level, you’re dealing with a different type of power,” Woodley said. “I feel like strategically, those guys look good, because the idea of a good fight to fans is a teeter-tottering, back-and-forth war. But when you got a guy that’s known for his jiu-jitsu, leg kicks and takedowns and he doesn’t use those when those are there, it’s not that great of a performance.

“When you got Robbie against the Octagon and he’s throwing punches in bunches and he’s swinging, hitting elbows and hitting with MMA gloves, yeah he threw 100 punches, but how many actually landed? How many did significant damage? If I get Robbie against the cage, it’s gonna take a couple and he’s gonna go down. Put Stephen [Thompson] against the cage, it took a couple and he went down. Nate Marquardt. Anybody, in win or defeat, if I see the chin and I hit it, they go down.”

Coming off of a victory over Demian Maia last July, Woodley is in need of a new challenger, and dos Anjos seems to be first in line to earn a title shot. The champion, however, remains adamant that he doesn’t have much interest in fighting RDA:

“I’m looking forward to fighting people who their brands are larger than mine. I’m not looking to bring somebody up,” Woodley said. “I’m in a position where I did that already. I’ve already sought out to fight the guy with a brand, so that I could project myself and bring myself up. I’m just not interested in promoting other people, man. I worked so hard to self-promote myself. I don’t have no agent. I’m out there in these streets and I’m hustling. Until someone can show me they’re doing the same thing or truly deserve the No. 1 contender, I’m good.”

Who would you like to see “The Chosen One” fight next?