“I Had a Bad Night” – Tyron Woodley Believes He Is Still the Champion

Tyron Woodley ruled the Welterweight division of the UFC for a significant amount of time. It seems that the euphoria of the same is still present in his mind. This is because Woodley believes he’s still the champion, in his own mind.

Tyron lost the welterweight belt after Kamaru Usman defeated him in a one-sided contest. After the defeat, Woodley is yet to step foot inside the Octagon. The UFC had booked Tyron Woodley vs Leon Edwards for UFC Fight Night in London last month. However, the card fell prey to the outbreak of Coronavirus.

If Woodley wants to get his name back into the mix, he has to fight. And he has to fight soon. While the UFC matchmakers may believe that Woodley has to earn back his title shot, “The Chosen One” doesn’t even think that he is not the champion. In his mind, he just had a bad day at work.

“Right now I feel like I had a bad night, but I’m still the champion in my mind,” Woodley told TMZ Sports. “I’ve still got the mentality, I’ve still got the skillset, so I’ve got to align where my mind’s at to actually getting back to that belt. So whatever fights get me to that belt, that’s what I’m doing.”

Tyron Woodley is not focussing on opponents right now

Being a former champ, Woodley has a handful of opponents to pick from. After his fight with Leon Edwards fell off, he was eyeing a fight against the former interim champ, Colby Covington. The two have a bit of history between them as well. The contest should have happened when both of them were the champ and interim champ respectively.

However, according to Dana White, Colby refused to fight. Subsequently, he was stripped of his interim belt. Apart from Colby and Edwards, Gilbert Burns is also someone who has been calling out Woodley. Following his win at UFC Brasilia last month, a spirited Burns alleged that Woodley has been avoiding him. To add to the list, Santiago Ponzinibbio and Rafael dos Anjos were interested in fighting Tyron as well.

Despite the number of options, Woodley isn’t concerned with opponents right now. Instead, he is focusing upon fighting for three or four times this year.

“I don’t even care at this point,” Woodley responded when asked who he wanted to fight next. “I’m seeking performances. I want to go out and I want to put three or four crazy performances in this year where people are like ‘What the f*ck did he do to Tyron? Why did he whoop his ass like that?’”

The former champion asserted that everyone present in the UFC is good enough. Therefore, he doesn’t mind who stands across the Octagon when he walks in the next time.

“That’s all I’m thinking about, so it really doesn’t matter at this point. At this point, I’m willing to fight anybody because at the end of the day everybody’s good, everybody’s tough, and when you’re the champion you don’t get a chance to pick who you fight.”