On Saturday night at UFC 214, Tyron Woodley successfully defended his welterweight title for the second time against Demian Maia. But even before this fight was made, “The Chosen One” has been adamant about his intent to face former long-time 170-pound champion Georges St-Pierre.
Now that he has dealt with Maia, Woodley has shifted his focus back to St-Pierre. During his post-fight press conference, he stated his reasons as to why this fight has to happen.
“[St-Pierre] should have to fight me,” Woodley said (transcript via MMA Fighting). “If you are the best welterweight of all time, you’re gonna come back into the sport and go up a weight class? I guarantee you if Demian Maia would have won, he would have been talking about fighting Demian Maia.”
“I guarantee if Stephen Thompson would have won, he’d have been looking to fight Stephen Thompson. He doesn’t want to fight me because I’m a better version of him.”
For Woodley, St-Pierre’s original intent of moving up a weight class to fight Michael Bisping is a sign of cowardice. In that sense, he believes he should automatically be branded as the greatest welterweight of all-time, especially if the fight against GSP never gets to materialize.
“When was the last time Michael Bisping fought? Think about it. I fought four world title fights against actual No. 1 contenders,” Woodley argued. “Has he ever fought a No. 1 contender? I fought the No. 1 contender twice. I fought the No. 1 contender after that. And I fought the world champion who was Robbie Lawler at the time before that.”
“I’m the only one that’s going by the old set of rules. So if it’s not Georges St-Pierre, let him run. But guess what? Whoever you put in front of me, I’m gonna run through them, I’m gonna beat them, and if he does not fight me, by default I will be the best welterweight of all-time.”
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