Despite the fact that he technically retained his welterweight championship, Tyron Woodley walked away from his UFC 205 fight against Stephen Thompson slightly disappointed.
Tyron Woodley admitted that his first title defense was a “tough fight.” But “The Chosen One” believes he should have won the bout, weven though it was judged a majority draw.
Interestingly, Woodley was initially announced the winner of the matchup; announcer Bruce Buffer declared him the split decision winner, even though he read off two draw scorecards. Moments later, Buffer double-checked with the commission, and corrected the error, instead declaring the fight a majority draw.
Woodley didn’t look to be too happy during the confusing situation, as he wasn’t prepared to instead find out he wasn’t actually the champion. Of course, he didn’t receive the worst news possible, and is the 170-pound champion. But he didn’t keep the title in the fashion he had wanted to.
“When they said that, I looked over like, ‘Hell no, I’m not about to give my belt away, because I did not lose this fight.’ I was just kind of a little bummed that it was a draw, because I felt like I clearly won the fight,” the 34-year-old said at the UFC 205 post-fight press conference.
“I thought the fourth round, when I almost had him finished, I thought they probably should’ve stopped the fight,” he said. “I saw his eyes roll back. I was surprised they didn’t stop it. It looks like in Eddie’s fight, they stopped it a little bit sooner than mine. But you keep fighting, you keep pushing forward. He’s a tough guy. He recovered. I think I punched him one more time and woke him back up, and he revived with some energy. Just in general, it was just a back-and-forth fight.”
Woodley (16-3-1) captured welterweight gold at UFC 201 this past summer with a stunning first-round knockout of Robbie Lawler. He’s currently riding a four-fight unbeaten streak, which also includes wins over Kelvin Gastelum and Dong Hyun Kim.
UFC 205 took place live from Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday, Nov. 12. In the main event, Conor McGregor defeated Eddie Alvarez via second-round knockout to become the lightweight champion.
