Tyron Woodley: I’m a nightmare for Kamaru Usman ‘every day of the week’

When Tyron Woodley and Kamaru Usman first shared the cage, Usman walked away with a unanimous decision victory. Yet Woodley is not convinced Usman is the better fighter.

“When you watch the Kamaru Usman fight, I don’t have to watch it. It was a silhouette of Tyron in the Octagon or something happened when I jumped up and stomped down, I think my spirit left my body,” Woodley said during a recent fan Q&A (via MMA Fighting). “I can give him credit for what he did. He stayed focused, he executed but we all know that wasn’t Tyron Woodley.

“So I don’t have to go back and watch the film and say the chain wrestling [affected me]. I’m a Division I All-American [wrestler], not Division II. I’m not knocking that but it’s a way different level. When you think about striking, when you think about my resume, it’s not that he did something so great that I couldn’t keep up with. It’s just the fact that it’s one of those nights when you walk out there, everything feels perfect and you get close to your opponent and the battery pack is snatched out of your back. That’s really what I felt like.”

Woodley continued, sharing his belief that, when he’s on-point, he’s a terrible style matchup for Usman.

“Kamaru Usman skill set wise on paper, I’m a nightmare for him every day of the week,” Woodley said. “What happened in the Octagon is one, I never make excuses. I walked into four world title fights with the weight of the world on my back, personal issues, injuries, I never healed from the injury before, but you guys never hear about that but the second I go out there and I fight and I’m not the characteristic Tyron Woodley that you see, immediately it’s music that’s distracting me. It’s movies that’s distracting me.

“I’ve been doing this same thing forever, you guys just never hear about it.”

What do you think of these comments from Tyron Woodley?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/30/2019.