Tyron Woodley explains why loss to Colby Covington hurt more than his other setbacks

UFC welterweight contender Tyron Woodley explained why his loss to Colby Covington hurt more than his other setbacks inside the Octagon.

Woodley and Covington were once training partners, but the men turned into bitter rivals over the last few years. Their rivalry culminated in their fight last September, where Colby Covington beat Woodley down until finishing him via TKO (injury) late in the fifth round. It was the third loss in a row for Woodley, and it hurt even more because he lost to Covington, someone who he used to train with and who he saw coming up the ladder.

Speaking to TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter, Woodley explained why losing to Covington in particular hurt so bad. “The Chosen One” said that he had talked to Covington about his ‘act’ while he was the UFC welterweight champion, and when he ended up losing to him a few years later, it hurt more than he could have imagined because of their past together.

A very candid Tyron Woodley explains why the loss to Colby Covington hurt more than some of his other losses and tells a story about predicting that Kamaru Usman would become champion one day, just not by defeating him.

Full interview: https://t.co/AWiGpQasOw pic.twitter.com/UYtOatoPYj

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) March 25, 2021

“Well, he wasn’t really disrespecting me, he was doing an act. I knew about the act, I even talked to him about it. I told him, ‘There’s a different way to do it, you’re going to look stupid and silly. But if that’s what you want to do, go ahead and do it.’ He’s like, ‘Man, I’m just trying to get money and build this up and we can make money at the end.’ I gave him attention one time on a FOX episode and that was it. I told him I wouldn’t say anything else. So for the longest, he was able to go along with it freely. I never said anything about it, I was a champion. I didn’t have to address him,” Tyron Woodley said.

“It hurt to lose to him just because he was willing to use an act to stir up some negative controversy with some things that are very sensitive. Whether it was with Brazilians or if it was the political debate, whatever he was doing, it was all a game. I think certain things you shouldn’t play with. For someone I used to pay as a training partner who never thought about winning a second against me in any training format in life. To lose to a guy like that when I had a chance to go out there and beat him, send a strong message to the division, send a strong message to America that we should start together, and also just to kind of silence him a little bit. Yeah, it kind of hurt for those things more than anything else. But looking back, I never lost an opportunity to reach out to those people to send a positive message. In victory or defeat, it’s still the platform,” concluded Tyron Woodley.