Tyron Woodley Says Johny Hendricks Turned Down Fight With Him
UFC welterweight Tyron Woodley continues his quest for a title shot in the promotion’s deep 170-pound division, but he is currently without an opponent. Coming off two straight wins over Dong Hyun Kim and Kelvin Gastelum, momentum is starting to once again build for ‘The Chosen One’.
According to Woodley, he had hoped to face Johny Hendricks to decide the next number one contender to the title, a plan that the UFC was allegedly interested in. He explained that the winner of a returning Carlos Condit vs Matt Brown would then decide the next contender. Sounds logical enough, so why did ‘The Immortal’ end up getting booked against ‘Bigg Rigg’ at UFC 185?
‘T-Wood’ tells MMAJunkie Radio that Hendricks turned down a fight with him last week:
“It really was in Johny’s court,” Woodley said. “And you know Johny, he’s not scared to fight anybody. I’m not proclaiming that he’s scared of me and he don’t want this matchup. I’m a realist; I’m not going to sh-t out things that aren’t factual. But why wouldn’t I try to get under his skin a little bit and try to make him take this fight, because I want to intercept where he’s at.
“I’m kind of sick of the trilogies and the rematches. Last week, they called me and said, ‘Johny said he wants to wait.’ I’m like, ‘Wait? You get an option? When did we get that? You get an option to wait and watch the fight?’”
Once accused by team mate Hector Lombard of ducking a fight himself, ‘The Choosey One’ might be a little out of line with his last statement. Also, he goes on to say that he turned down another fight with a well known welterweight in the UFC:
“Why am I going to fight Ellenberger, who’s on three losses, who beat a guy that was on three losses?” he said. “It was the battle to stay relevant. A victory is not going to put him in position to fight for the title. I can go and find somebody who’s ranked 20th, 15th, that can give me a great matchup and will look great for the fans. But if these people are not in a position that their next fight is going to secure a fight for the world title, then I’m not fighting them. It doesn’t make any sense.”
So once again Woodley is all about the numbers, but is he pricing himself out of the market? The hard truth for any top 10 fighter is that you may have to fight to keep your place, and it’s not always guaranteed to be against another highly ranked opponent.
With Hendricks uninterested, and Robbie Lawler tangling with Rory MacDonald at UFC 189, who is left for Woodley to face?
“(UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva’s job is to make contenders, to constantly match-make, where there’s always an emerging contender,” he said. “But what we’ve done is there’s so many damn UFC fights that people are scattered out. They’re not in sync together.”
Thoughts?
