Ladies and gentlemen, the rematch is over. Tyron Woodley defeated Stephen Thompson last night (Sat., Mar. 4, 2017) at UFC 209 live on pay-per-view (PPV) from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, to retain his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight title. This bout was nearly as close as their majority draw at UFC 205 this past November, but at least the reboot produced a winner.
The fight may have began very stagnant, offering little offense through the first two rounds, but “Wonderboy” was able to control the action, create his own space and dictate when and where he threw a strike. That’s not something he was able to do four months ago. Woodley did secure an early takedown in Round 3 and started to land solid ground-and-pound for his first meaningful offense of the fight. It wasn’t long after that Thompson got back to his feet, which is a victory in itself, and landed good counters inside. Thompson was able to hit Woodley with a stiff left hook before the third frame came to an end.
In the fourth round, “Wonderboy” finally found a home for his versatile attacks, landing multiple head kicks on Woodley. As for the champion, he continued a reserved approach inside of the cage that presumably set him behind on the scorecards. Woodley came out aggressive in the final frame knowing he could possibly need a finish to retain his belt. Luckily for him, he was able to blast Thompson with a huge right hand combination with seconds to spare and nearly finished the challenger along the cage. When the scores were read out loud in front of thousands of booing Las Vegas fans, Woodley got his hand raised for the majority decision victory.
The full fight video highlights can be seen above courtesy of UFC.
With this win, Woodley walks away with is title in tact. From the outside, many could score this fight for Thompson based on the inactivity of “The Chosen One” for three out of the five rounds, but Woodley’s last ditch effort once again left Thompson with more damage to tend to. That said, Woodley has not been as dominant in his championship reign as he was during his journey to get the belt. He’ll need a big performance later this year, which might even come against the almighty Conor McGregor, to further pad his promotional stock.
For complete UFC 209 results and coverage click here.
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