Wonderboy Thinks Tyron Woodley Is “Already Broken”
It may be taking a backseat to the Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez main event, but the welterweight championship fight between Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson in the co-main event of this week’s (Sat., November 12, 2016) UFC 205 from Madison Square Garden in New York City is still one of the most awaited bouts of 2016.
It’s been a long time coming, as ‘Wonderboy’ has been tabbed for a 170-pound title shot since he demolished former champ Johny Hendricks in the first round last February for his sixth straight victory. Thompson has since secured a seventh over former title contender Rory MacDonald, and when Woodley surprised the MMA world by knocking out former champion Robbie Lawler at UFC 201, it became all but a formality that Thompson would fight for the title despite ‘The Chosen One’s’ calling for bouts with Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz.
The fight that fans wanted was eventually made, yet Woodley got the war of words started by saying he “didn’t respect Thompson as a man” after he supposedly knew about the fight before Woodley announced it on TV himself. Speaking to FOX Sports about the build-up to his biggest fight, Thompson said the smack talk simply doesn’t get to him:
“It makes me smile. I don’t know what I have done to make him not respect me as a man. I think it is the fact that he thinks I knew about the fight earlier on, which is not true. The only time I knew we were fighting is when he announced it on FOX Sports 1, but it doesn’t bother me one bit.
“I’ve been fighting since I was 15 years old and I’ve had all kinds of things happen to me. People calling me “Wonder Woman” and “Wonder Bra” “Wonder Bread”. It does make me chuckle some and it does mean that I’m getting under his skin a little bit. Sometimes that can give you an advantage.”
Wonderboy believes Woodley’s talk is a sign he’s already breaking before their co-headliner at the UFC’s New York debut, and the boos from the crowd are creeping into his psyche:
“This guy’s breaking already and the fight hasn’t even started yet,” Thompson said. “I could tell when we went out and stood in front of each other and he’s looking at the crowd, I could tell. Going back and watching that, he’s thinking a little bit too much into this and we’ll see how it affects him in the fight.”
The champion has brought in talented karate striker Sage Northcutt to help mimic “Wonderboy’s” unique striking, but Thompson still believes Woodley has no idea what’s coming November 12. Thompson insists that’s going to frustrate him, and when that becomes true, he know he’ll have Woodley right where he wants him:
“When he goes out there and he has trouble hitting me, that’s when it’s really going to surface. Right now, I’m under his skin. He doesn’t know what to expect whenever I get out there. He’s looking at my last fight, he’s looking at all my fights and you’re still not going to know what’s coming,” Thompson said.
“That frustrates a lot of people and you do things that you don’t normally do and that’s when I’ve got you. When I frustrate you, then that’s when I’ve got you.”
