With Georges St-Pierre returning to the Octagon, many thought there'd be a good chance he'd step back in to the UFC and try to retake his former welterweight title, which he gave up when he left the sport three years ago. Instead he decided to move up a weight class and challenge for Michael Bisping's middleweight belt.
That left fans and fighters with a lot of mixed feelings, but you have to figure it sucks for Tyron Woodley, who has been aching with every fiber of his being for a huge fight that will not only make him a lot of money but allow him to prove he's the best welterweight champion ever. Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com asked Woodley about having the potential GSP fight taken away from him in the days leading up to his UFC 209 rematch with Stephen Thompson on March 4th, and as usual Tyron had some interesting things to say.
"This happened to me before," Woodley revealed. "I was told if I beat Rory McDonald I would fight for the title. And that Wednesday fight week, it was announced that the winner of Robbie Lawler versus Matt Brown would fight for the title. And it really took me off my rocker, I was really upset, I was going to fight Rory in his hometown to beat him there and go on to fight for the gold. And it really took it away from me.”
“I acted as if it didn't bother me but it really did. The fight didn't mean the same thing. In this case I'm the world champion, so I can't allow a fight that has nothing to do with me at this current point to take over the mindset of fighting Wonderboy. I'm blocking it completely out."
The good news is, as far as being the greatest welterweight of all time, GSP moving up to middleweight actually proves Tyron is the best!
"I think I'm the greatest welterweight of all time because I'm the hardest puncher and I'm the best wrestler, I think I'm the most well rounded," Woodley said. "And GSP, he don't want to fight me. GSP, one of the reasons he left the sport is because of concussions. He's talking about going down to 155, he's going up to 185, Michael Bisping isn't known to be the power striker to knock the head off your head. And I think he's avoiding fighting me. So therefore I'm the greatest welterweight of all time if he doesn't want to fight."
We imagine there'll be a few of you who disagree in the comments. For more on UFC 209 this weekend, click here.
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