Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight king Tyron Woodley recently opened up on the details of the hand injury he sustained at UFC 228, which ultimately forced him out of a potential title defense against Colby Covington at UFC 230 in New York.
Woodley recently underwent surgery to repair his right hand and was featured on an episode of The Hollywood Beatdown direct from his doctor’s office as they splinted his injured right wrist.
”It’s the CMC joint, I dislocated my thumb in the [Darren Till] fight,” Woodley explained. “I did it in the first round and then I actually tore ligaments there. At the end of the first round I punched and hit the back of his head. And then the second round, I started elbowing and punching and then I got on top and the coach was like ‘Hook punch him!’ So I started doing what we call the hook punch and my hand started hurting.”
”I was like ‘Aw that doesn’t feel good, let me elbow this motherf**ker. So that’s what I started doing. And at the end of the fight I just saw my thumb just poking out. My natural reaction was to push it back down. I pushed it down, ooh, I’m like ‘I broke it. Wow this is crazy. I’m probably going to have to get pins, this is probably displaced.’ Then it popped up again, I pushed it back down, it made a noise like light bulbs cracking in my hand.”
Woodley said the pain he felt when during the procedure to correct his wrist was extreme. ”I ain’t never wanted to fight no doctor so bad in my life,” he said. “When he injected me it was at about a 15 out of 10. I’m trying to keep it together cuz I don’t want to be no punk ass b*tch.”
“The Chosen One” said he’ll most likely return in January in a much hyped title defense against Covington.
”I got 6 to 8 weeks, [doctors] said,” Woodley said. “In two weeks I can move it around, 6 to 8 I should be training full, he doesn’t want me to fight before 6 to 8 weeks. Obviously I have to do a full training camp as well, so probably January. Most likely [against Covington], unless they want me to fight somebody else. Anybody can get it right now, to be honest.”