Tyron Woodley Says Stephen Thompson Got In His Head Before UFC 205

Tyron Woodley spoke with the Morning Wood Show ahead of his rematch with Stephen Thompson at UFC 209. Some highlights are below:

On Thompson’s trash talk ahead of the UFC 205 fight: “He got under my skin so much that I’m just going to go ahead and fight the dude. He got under my skin that bad where I don’t even care about the ration and the money and what fight makes the most sense. You need to be careful what you ask for. ‘Wonderboy,’ if you want it, come get it. You want to fight? You want to get done worse than you did the first time? Some people have got to be real careful.”

On not seeing the need for an immediate rematch: “What ever happened to the phrase, ‘You have to beat the champion’? Is that a lost art? Can you go in there and make it close with the champion and walk around as if you’ve beat the champion? I’m just not cool with the way the fight was promoted, as if I was the challenger. I don’t like that the challenger thinks he can call the shots.”

On the first fight: “Two rounds were completely lopsided, and three rounds outside of that were very close. He never dominated a single round of that fight. So now if you can tell me I did not win either Round 2, Round 3 or Round 5, then I would agree he deserves a rematch. But I do believe I won Round 3. I do believe Round 1 or 4 would be a 10-8. Then on a third category, some people would have stopped that fight. There are three ways I could have won that fight.”

On the rematch: “He’s going to get in that octagon, and he’s going to be in for a rude awakening because if he thought that was something the last time, I’m going all the way up. I want him to tremble when I walk past him and him have a flashback of when I knocked him to the canvas and he woke up and the referee was counting ‘A-B-C, 1-2-3’ with him. I’m just tired of these guys that just feel entitled.”