Former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley was initially scheduled to fight Leon Edwards at UFC London this weekend.
The fight fell through after a travel ban between the United Kingdom and the United States was put in place, resulting in UFC London event being cancelled. UFC planned to reschedule the fight for a later date, but now it appears that Tyron Woodley no longer wants it.
Woodley talked to Ariel Helwani, explaining why he doesn’t want to reschedule his fight against Leon Edwards, wishing to fight Colby Covington instead:
“The only reason that the Leon Edwards fight ever got booked, is because Colby Covington wasn’t ready to fight,” Woodley said. “And they didn’t know when Colby would be ready to fight, and I didn’t want to wait.”
Leon Edwards is currently ranked No.4 in the division. He would have entered the fight against Woodley on an 8-fight winning streak – the 2nd longest in the welterweight division, behind Kamaru Usman.
Woodley explained that he believes Edwards is not a big enough name for him to be interested in this fight:
“Cause I originally said I wasn’t going to f*cking London to fight,” Woodley said. “Why? ‘Cause [who the] f*ck’s Leon Edwards? Nobody knows his a*s. [But] He’s a good fighter, he’s a great fighter. I gave him props every time.”
He also talked about fighters using trash-talking to get fights, addressing a recent call out from Gilbert Burns:
“But look how corny everybody is. Like Gilbert Burns was just in the elevator, saying what’s up to me. [He was] out of the country, now he’s on the bottom [saying] ‘let’s go blah blah.’ You’re supposed to do that because that’s the model that everybody has portrayed that that’s how you get a fight. That’s how you sell a fight. This is what you have to do.
“What you guys don’t realise is you look f*cking dumb, you look stupid. You’re doing what other people want you to do. I do what I want to do.”
Woodley continued to talk about trash-talking in the sport, suggesting that fighters are copying the likes of Conor McGregor, Colby Covington and Chael Sonnen and called the trend “corny”:
“Our sport’s seen Chael Sonnen first, then they’ve seen Conor McGregor, then Colby Covington created this whole act,” Woodley said. “If you’re going to create an act, don’t tell people it’s an act. Hold on to it until you retire. Like you’re openly telling people it’s an act, makes it even cornier.
“So you’ve got everybody dressing the way they think they’re supposed to dress… Conor McGregor was wearing suits, let me wear a suit. This guy was talking trash, let me talk trash. This guy has a gimmick, let me get a gimmick.
“It’s so terrible that grown a*s men and women can’t just be themselves these days.”
Colby Covington recently called out Woodley, offering to step in on short-notice against him. Woodley allegedly accepted the fight, but nothing came out of it. He later suggested that Covington was not actually interested in fighting him and was simply “clout chasing”.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 19th March, 2020.
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