There was a total of three title bouts at UFC 214 and perhaps the most disliked of the three bouts was the UFC Welterweight Title bout as Tyron Woodley successfully defended the gold against Demian Maia.
The fans weren’t the only people who disliked the bout, as the UFC President didn’t like what he saw either.
“Listen, when you break a record for the least punches ever thrown in a five-round title fight, and you beat it, by I think it was like 130 and these guys threw 60 or something like that, I think that sums it up,” White told reporters at the UFC 214 post-fight press conference. "The guy had one eye in the first round and you’re faster, you’re stronger, your hands are better, you’re explosive. I believe that Woodley could’ve finished that in the first round, and if not, he definitely could’ve finished it in the second round. If you had a remote control for that guy, he’s a freak of nature, he’d be an incredible fighter. Listen, it’s easy to say a win is a win but when you get booed out of an arena, that means people don’t want to watch you fight, you know. that’s how you make a living. It’s not good if people don’t want to watch you fight.” You ask fans if they want to see Woodley fight again, I think that will be a flat out no. Who wants to pay to see Tyron Woodley fight again? He’s an absolute physical specimen, the guy could’ve finished the fight at any time he wanted to but, you know, he didn’t want to take the risks. You take no risks, you get no rewards.”
Woodley was jeered by the fans in attendance as he tried giving a post-fight interview to Joe Rogan after the successful title defense.
However, when he got the chance to speak at the post-fight press conference, the champion got the opportunity to defend himself.
“I thought it was a great performance,” Woodley said. “You’ve got a guy on a seven-fight win streak, he’s taken out all seven opponents, world class guys, gotten on their backs, submitted them. Very resilient, very persistent on his attack. How many takedowns did he try? Twenty-four tried, 24 denied. So I think we need to look at the different stats. This is my fourth title fight in 12 months. He shot 24 times and think of how many different top class welterweights he would have been able to put on the ground. He was not able to do any of that on me. I felt good, I felt my conditioning was great. We accepted this fight four weeks ago and I felt amazing. Sometimes I think those shorter camps are better.”
White spoke of missed opportunities for his perceived poor performance at UFC 214 and that reward the welterweight champion lost was a dream fight against former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre. At the very same post-fight press conference, the UFC President said UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping may be fighting GSP this November at UFC 217.
