Woodley Not Impressed By Covington vs. Usman Title Fight
Many have hailed Kamaru Usman’s welterweight title fight with Colby Covington at UFC 245 as one of the fights of the year — but not Tyron Woodley.
Usman successfully defended his 170-pound strap with a fifth-round TKO of Covington after a back-and-forth brawl earlier this month. Both men were praised for their heart and endurance but Woodley, on the other hand, was “disgusted” by their performances.
“Kamaru won the fight, broke Colby’s jaw. Colby, I thought was winning the fight by a little small margin,” Woodley said on The Hollywood Beatdown. “I wasn’t impressed my man. I was really disgusted. I wanted to throw up, the fact that I lost to Usman. … If I would’ve punched Colby, he may be on life support right now.
“When I’m looking at how many punches those guys took, I was impressed by their durability. I was impressed by the fact that they kept doing it over and over again. It was kind of a teeter-tottering thing. But as far as IQ, moving your f*cking head maybe? To the sides so the punches misses your head? I didn’t see a lot of that. I was surprised that I didn’t see a lot of wrestling. I thought I was going to see a lot of, lot of wrestling. I didn’t see a lot of power. I mean, I guess you can’t make a motherf*cker have power. You can’t inject power into somebody’s body. Well, you can inject power into the body — it’s called USADA failure.”
Despite his many critics, Covington received his fair share of credit for continuing to fight on despite suffering a broken jaw early on in the fight. But for Woodley, it’s pointless as he went on to lose.
“I just don’t like when people try to give unnecessary savage moments,” Woodley added. “Yeah, he broke his jaw. ‘Oh, he broke his jaw in the second round and kept fighting!’ But you lost. How many times have I broken my foot against Kelvin Gastelum and tore my shoulder against Demian Maia or f*cked my hand up against Darren Till and still won. That’s the difference. I never got the savage moments, ‘oh, Tyron’s so tough because he continued and won.’ F*ck both of them. I don’t really want to give them no love, I don’t want to give them no clout.”
Those comments might come as surprising given the mutual respect Woodley and Usman have for each other. But “The Chosen One” only means disrespect when it comes to fighting as he still believes he is the best welterweight of all time.
“I always got respect for Kamaru but that don’t mean I’m not gonna say f*ck him,” Woodley continued. “That means I respect what you do, I respect that the night that we fought, you came forth and you executed a game plan. You can never take that away from him. He fought against the greatest welterweight of all time, he stayed focused, he stayed dedicated with everything at stake and he was able to execute. That’s it. He will get respect from me. I told him myself, ‘I have to call you champ. You are a champion.’ Even if he loses the next fight to me, forever he will get the word ‘champ’ from me. But when it comes down to fighting, f*ck him, f*ck all the welterweights, Leon [Edwards], peon, whoever else. F*ck everybody because I’m the best welterweight of all times.”
If the stars align, Woodley could get his chance at revenge by facing Usman next.
