A rumored welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Nate Diaz surfaced on Wednesday and, according to the current champion, ‘Woodley he is waiting on Diaz to sign the contract for UFC 219.
Ariel Helwani revealed that negotiations had taken place for a Dec. 30 matchup between Woodley, and lightweight superstar Diaz.
Woodley was featured as a guest on TMZ’s The Hollywood Beatdown, recently said he already signed the contract for UFC 219. He said UFC 219 is “50% complete” — and the only thing that’s holding it up is “scared” Nate Diaz. He is been training for Dec 30th matchup.
“Guys in our sport bump their gums quite a bit and they get you to think they’re these huge tough guys … they’re these gangsters that they’ll fight anybody, anytime.”
“And then when you get in front of a person like me … the crickets start to come out. They don’t really wanna fight.”“Get off of the pot, quit crapping yourself, you’ve taken plenty of butt whoppings before, this ain’t going to be any different. Get your big paycheck and drift off into the fall.”
Woodley calls out Nate Diaz while serving as an analyst for the UFC Sydney weigh-in show on FOX Sports 2 (FS2).
“I’m here,” Woodley said. “All I need is the paperwork sent — UFC 219, Dec. 30 needs a headliner. It’s been offered to me, it’s been offered to Nate Diaz. Unfortunately, one half has not accepted. So you guys, people listening and watching, you guys need to get the Twitter fingers and ask your man that said ‘Don’t be scared,’ why is he scared?”
Diaz, 32, hasn’t fought since he lost the welterweight rematch to Conor McGregor at UFC 202 last year. Before that fan favorite, Diaz submitted McGregor in a short notice fight at UFC 196.
Woodley, knocked out Robbie Lawler to score the UFC Welterweight Championship title last year at UFC 201 and has gone on to defend it against Demian Maia and Stephen Thompson.
“Our sport is out of the blue at this point. So, there’s no real rules,” Woodley said.
“I’m a huge fan of the Diaz boys. I’m a huge fan of what they’ve done for our sport. I feel like it’s not about the rankings anymore. Sometimes the rankings are a little shaky. When you think about who’s put in the most work, the most time, is he not deserving of the world title based upon what he did? Fighting Conor McGregor; even before, just fighting in these wars.
As UFC 219 scheduled to take place Dec. 30 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, expect the UFC to announce Woodley’s next title defense soon.
