Tyron Woodley admits Stephen Thompson has got under his skin ahead of UFC 209 rematch

At UFC 205 back in November, UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley stepped into the Octagon to fight streaking welterweight contender Stephen Thompson in a highly anticipated showdown.

For Thompson, he was looking to build on his 7-fight win streak which saw him go undefeated for four years as he racked up impressive wins over top ranked fighters such as Johny Hendricks, Rory MacDonald, and Jake Ellenberger to name just a few. For Tyron Woodley, he was looking to make his first successful title defense after winning the UFC welterweight championship by knocking Robbie Lawler out cold in the 1st round of their UFC 201 scrap.

When Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson stepped into the Octagon at UFC 205, the pair produced an epic showdown that saw Woodley ultimately retain the welterweight strap after the fight was scored a majority draw. While Woodley felt he won the fight given his dominance in rounds one and four, the pair are now set to have a rematch at UFC 209 on March 4th.

Ahead of the rematch, Woodley revealed on his podcast that ‘Wonderboy’ actually got under his skin while attempting to solidify a rematch with the champ:

“He got under my skin so much that I’m just going to go ahead and fight the dude,” Woodley said on the newest edition of “The Morning Wood Show” podcast with cohost Din Thomas. “He got under my skin that bad where I don’t even care about the ration and the money and what fight makes the most sense. You need to be careful what you ask for. ‘Wonderboy,’ if you want it, come get it. You want to fight? You want to get done worse than you did the first time? Some people have got to be real careful.”

“What ever happened to the phrase, ‘You have to beat the champion’? Is that a lost art?” Woodley said. “Can you go in there and make it close with the champion and walk around as if you’ve beat the champion? I’m just not cool with the way the fight was promoted, as if I was the challenger. I don’t like that the challenger thinks he can call the shots.”

While Thompson recently stated that he is confident he will be able to avenge the loss in the rematch, Woodley thinks the challenger is in for a rude awakening:

“He’s going to get in that octagon, and he’s going to be in for a rude awakening because if he thought that was something the last time, I’m going all the way up,” Woodley said. “I want him to tremble when I walk past him and him have a flashback of when I knocked him to the canvas and he woke up and the referee was counting ‘A-B-C, 1-2-3’ with him. I’m just tired of these guys that just feel entitled.”

on 1/11/2017.