Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. Tyron
Woodley has endured a steep decline since his reign as UFC
welterweight champion. The 38-year-old suffered his third consecutive loss at
UFC Fight Night 178, falling to Colby
Covington via fifth-round technical knockout in Saturday’s
headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. That defeat comes on the
heels of lopsided setbacks at the hands of Gilbert
Burns at UFC on ESPN 9 this past May and to reigning 170-pound
king Kamaru
Usman in 2019.
UFC president Dana White believes Woodley’s recent struggles could
signal the end of the line for the Missouri native.
“I think that he should start thinking about hanging it up,” White
said at the UFC Fight Night 178 post-fight press conference. “He’s
had a great career, he’s had a great run. He’s made money.”
When Woodley was initially expected to face Covington at UFC 228 in
September 2018, he was being mentioned as one sport’s greatest
welterweights. Tension between the two former American Top Team
stablemates was high, seemingly setting the stage for a bitter
grudge match in the Octagon. However, Covington was unable to
compete at the event, and Woodley submitted Darren Till
in the UFC 228 main event — his last victory within the Las
Vegas-based promotion.
Two years later, Woodley vs. Covington didn’t live up to the hype
that the welterweights’ bad blood outside of the cage had served to
build. Covington dominated the majority of the contest through
volume striking, clinch work, takedowns and ground-and-pound before
Woodley suffered a rib injury 79 seconds into the fifth round,
ending what had been a lopsided affair.
White wasn’t exactly surprised that the grudge match didn’t
deliver.
“Listen, I don’t want to have the whole ‘let’s s—t on Woodley’
press conference, but Woodley’s had this throughout his career,”
White said. “He’ll come out and knock a guy out explosively and
whatever, and then have a fight where they lay on the fence for
five rounds. I wouldn’t say that this is shocking, that this has
never happened before, but—I don’t know.
“Listen, we all get older, it happens. It happens to the best of
us. But Woodley’s had a good career. He’s been a champion, he’s
been around here for a while, had a good run in Strikeforce
too.”
From 2014 to 2018, Woodley was unbeaten in seven Octagon
appearances, a run that included a knockout of Robbie
Lawler to claim welterweight gold and title defenses against
the likes of Stephen
Thompson, Demian Maia
and Till. There was hope that he would be able to rebound from
lackluster performances against Usman and Burns, but Woodley simply
could not use his distaste for his opponent to his advantage on
Saturday night.
Heading into the bout, White thought that the UFC Fight Night 178
headliner might resemble the slugfest between Covington and
Kamaru
Usman last December. That was not the case.
“It depended on what Woodley was going to show up,” White said.
“Which Tyron
Woodley was going to show up. Like I said, it should have been
a lot like the Usman fight. But that wasn’t the Tyron we got
tonight.”
