UFC President Dana White has dealt with thousands of fighters over his nearly two decade term with the UFC.
However, there’s one fighter whom White believes is turning into a drama queen, that fighter is UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley.
“The thing is with Tyron: First of all, he’s a smart guy, he’s a good looking kid, he’s explosive, he’s got knockout power, but he’s a bit of a drama queen,” White said to ESPN Radio. “I think he means the fans are a big part of it too. When a fight is made – and Conor McGregor is a perfect example – Conor McGregor has that ‘fight anybody, anywhere’ attitude. But (he) doesn’t just have the attitude, he lives it. I’ve stood in front of (McGregor on) 10 days’ notice, and his opponent falls out and he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care. ‘Bring them all, I’m better than everybody. I’m the man. I’m the guy.’ If Tyron Woodley had that attitude, Tyron Woodley would be a massive star – massive star.”
Woodley is preparing to defend his welterweight gold against Stephen Thompson. The two had fought to a majority draw at UFC 205 a few months back.
White has a theory of where the problem begins for Woodley and it has to due with how Woodley handles himself on social media.
“He does these things where he literally – he’ll say on Instagram when they know who he’s supposed to fight next, he’ll go out on social media and say, ‘I’m not fighting him. I think I want to fight him or this guy or this guy,'” White said. “That’s not what people want to hear. People don’t want to hear that. Then what he does, then, is he’ll start fighting and arguing with people on social media. He wonders why he shows up at a press conference, (and) the whole crowd is booing him. They’re not booing him because he’s black. There’s tons of black guys fighting in the UFC. It’s Tyron. If you look at the guy, he’s the perfect specimen, he’s the perfect athlete that you can get behind and promote until he shoots himself in the foot by doing that type of stuff.”
UFC 209 takes place on Saturday, March 4 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson headlining. Fightful will have live coverage of the event and a post-show podcast as well.
