UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley recently took some heat from UFC President Dana White for claiming that a super fight against Nate Diaz was in the works. Dana White went on to call Woodley “full of sh*t” for the claim. Now the UFC welterweight champion has decided to fire back.
Speaking on the latest edition of the The MMA Hour, Woodley revealed his thoughts on the matter.
“I was really pissed off. I could see if it was a situation that I literally just made up.”
“That’s a little bit harsh, a little bit hardcore for somebody who is wearing the belt of your organization, that people and young fighters aspire to enter the UFC, they aspire to be UFC champion. I don’t think many people are going to aspire to be the champion when they see how champions are treated. And they see that the non-champions and the people that are unprofessional — middle-finger flicking, shit talking — they’re actually making the money.
“So what kind of picture are we trying to put out? I thought we were going in the direction to be parallel with the NFL, NHL, MLB and the other professional sports. It’s a circus until it comes to Tyron and now we want to go back to the old-school rubric. I got issues with that.”
“I just didn’t think that was right. I think even if he thought that way, it could have been said a different way. I think a lot of people spun what I was saying. Never said this fight was in negotiations. Never said any of those things. Then when Nate came out, I never heard anybody say how full of shit Nate was. It’s so funny it was a one-sided bashing.”
“There’s no sport anymore, so quit playing with me when you guys want to act like this is a sport. And people want to [say], ‘Oh, Tyron is such a complainer.’ It’s so much negativity. Use that energy to talk about something positive.”
“It can’t go down like that. It’s very damaging for me, for a fighter that’s trying to generate his brand and his name.”
