EXCLUSIVE | Tyron Woodley explains why he accepted a rematch with Stephen Thompson at UFC 209

Last month we reported that a UFC welterweight title fight rematch between top contender Stephen Thompson and current title holder Tyron Woodley was in the works for March’s UFC 209 pay-per-view event in Las Vegas.

Earlier today that title fight rematch became official, as Tyron Woodley announced on his podcast that he had accepted a rematch with “Wonderboy” for the March 4 event.

Shortly after breaking the news, “The Chosen One” joined host Chris Taylor on BJPENN.com’s Rapid Fire segment where he revealed why he decided to give Stephen Thompson a second opportunity at his welterweight strap.

“You know it is like this. Demian Maia, Nick Diaz, Michael Bisping, Georges St-Pierre, those are all fights I will have in my career. While I am the champion it is important for me to have those fights because defeating all of those guys makes me undeniably the greatest welterweight who has ever fought in the octagon. So obviously that is important to me. But, I am just trying to pick which fight is the best fight at the right time. You know I wasn’t one hundred percent sold that a rematch with “Wonderboy” was the best thing for me right now. But then I thought let’s do this rematch so that everybody can shut up and we can close this book and move on to another chapter.”

He continued:

“Demian Maia obviously, if I was in his position I would be highly upset because I would feel like I am getting the short end of the stick. I would feel like I deserve that title fight and he said it himself, as many people believe, that it wasn’t a draw at UFC 205 and that I won that fight. So now he has to sit in the pocket because of some New York judges, who were probably judging their first MMA fight ever. As you saw from the scorecards it was some really weird judging and on top of the judging, different referees would have stepped in and stopped that fight. Even that Conor McGregor fight against Eddie (Alvarez), you know he hit Eddie with that supreme four-piece and Eddie hit the ground and they stopped it. You know I hit Thompson, he fell down almost the same way if not worse judging by the pictures and the bout continued. I feel like at a certain point it was a flash knockout. I am actually really surprised Stephen didn’t get medically suspended for six months considering how he was flash KO’d in that fight and how many times he was punches and elbowed. I just think they dropped the ball. So now we are going back to Vegas, where they kind of know what they are doing there a little bit, at least most times, and plus I just feel a little more confident and plan on putting on a dominant performance and creating that separation between me and “Wonderboy”.

As for how “The Chosen One” believes the rematch with Thompson will play out, Woodley had the following prediction.

“You know he didn’t respect me. He didn’t respect my ability, he didn’t respect the fact that I am a martial artist and that I do have good cardio. He thought that he could take me into the later rounds and drown me but the fourth-round is where I did the most damage at. So with that said, I always respect my opponents, he did nothing to surprise me. I mean I prepared for all these different things he can do but how many times did he land a kick on me? He’s known for that. Switch kicks, spinning kicks, side kicks, so I did a great job of defending those kicks in that fight and now he has to go back and think of something. He says he is going to transform his body. He’s trying to turn into bumblebee. He wants to drink some protein and get heavier and I’m just like all I have to do is go out there and do more of what I did. Go out there an execute the gameplan like we did the first time. We really only did 25% of what we planned on doing at UFC 205. So if we even do 50% I think it will be a very convincing victory and I plan on stopping him in there!”

Woodley also shared the following message for his fans.

“Yea man I want to tell all the fans to make sure to check out ‘The Champ Life’, we did a great job of covering UFC 207. New Years Eve Turnup with Ludacris with me and my man Demetrious Johnson, we got to hang out as well and give back to the community. So it shows every side of the coin. You know giving back to the community, that we like to go out and have a good time in our off-time, and also being at the fights. So make sure you check out ‘The Champ Life’ and also check out ‘The morning Wood show’, I go a little more rated R on how I feel about Wonderboy so check that out.”

Who do you think will win the welterweight title fight rematch between Stephen Thompson and Tyron Woodley at UFC 209 on March 4 in Las Vegas? Sound off PENN Nation! e