mma / News
Tyron Woodley Says Floyd Mayweather Could Hold His Own In UFC
In an interview with UFC Tonight (via MMA Fighting), Tyron Woodley spoke about the possibility of Floyd Mayweather fighting in the UFC, where he said the boxer could hold his own. Here are highlights:
On Mayweather transitioning to MMA: “Blocking kicks is really easy,” explained Woodley. “Once you get to the point where Floyd Mayweather is at, you can see that his boxing, his defense, his ability to see a punch coming in a fraction of a second and avoid or evade that punch, comes from repetition. Drilling over and over and over again. So that’s all we would have to do to utilize blocking kicks. If you look at mixed martial arts as a sport, there are guys that are in the UFC that don’t have a four out of five in their wrestling or jiu jitsu, so therefore, it’s not kinda crazy that someone with some of the best boxing we’ve ever seen may be able to hold his own. Obviously, every round starts on the feet, every fight starts on the feet, and if you can keep it on the feet, I think that he can hold his own with pretty much anyone in that weight division. My job is to really just help him avoid being taken down, using angles, using footwork, using defense, how to get back up if he gets taken down.”
On using Mayweather’s training to help his own skills: “You think for one second I’m gonna be in Floyd Mayweather’s camp and I’m not gonna tighten up my boxing and get my hands ready to go?. There’s gonna be a crossover in there. So I wouldn’t be second fiddle at all, it’s just a pivotal part of the sport where a boxing great decides to maybe come over to the octagon and see what he can do on that side and it’s an honor that they would consider me to do that.”