Tyron Woodley Recounts Mid-Fight Conversation With Stephen Thompson

In the wake of UFC 205, streaking lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov revealed that he exchanged some words with Michael Johnson during their exciting undercard battle.

“Yeah, I little bit talked with him,” the lightweight contender explained. “I told him ‘hey, I have to fight for the title, you know this.’ I told him, ‘I don’t want to smash your face, and I already beat you. You have to give up.”

As it turns out, Nurmagomedov and Johnson weren’t the only fighters on the UFC 205 lineup to exchange some words mid-fight. In a Monday afternoon appearance on The MMA Hour, UFC welterweight champion Tyron “The Chosen One” Woodley explained that he and his opponent Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson also got chatty between punches during their bout.

“I was calling his kicks out to him,” the welterweight champ told host Ariel Helwani. “I said, ‘I know what you’re about to do. You’re about to throw that wheel kick aren’t you.’ And he said ‘no actually I was going to try to throw a one-two, high-kick.’ I said ‘you throw that kick, I’m punching you.’ We were having a whole conversation in there.”

“I said, ‘you’re about to blitz,'” Woodley continued. “I said ‘remember last time you blitzed I knocked your ass down with that right hand.’ I said ‘you come in again I’m hitting you with this right hand.’ It was enough fun in there that it allowed us to be martial artists. But it was also enough respect.”

In the end, after five, frenzied rounds of war, Woodley would retain his welterweight title. Originally, the result was incorrectly read as a split decision victory for the defending champ. In the subsequent moments, however, it was revealed that the fight had actually been scored a draw. With this result, Woodley retained the welterweight crown – though surely not in the fashion he was hoping for.

With their five-round war in the rear-view, it appears as though Woodley and Thompson could be paired together for a rematch in the near future. While this seems to be the plan of UFC President Dana White, however, Woodley also has his eyes on a lucrative fight with UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor.

How did you think Woodley and Thompson’s bout should have been scored? Sound off, PENN Nation!