Tyron Woodley Would Be Willing to Vacate the Welterweight Title to Face Georges St-Pierre

Tyron Woodley said in an interview about his desire to face Georges St-Pierre, saying he’s willing to vacate the welterweight title in order to do so. You can see highlights from the interview below, per MMAjunkie.

on a fight with GSP: “If I went up to 185 – before Georges started having whatever the condition he had, I considered making a move up to 185 and fighting at that weight class. (I’d give) up my belt at welterweight and fight him for the middleweight title and stay at middleweight.”

On pwhy he would be willing to move up in weight class: “I’m not going up to middleweight because I think that would boost me on the pound-for-pound (rankings). I want to fight Georges, and he’s not fighting in my weight. So I’ll come up and see you there. And I do think there are some guys I can compete with in the middleweight division. I’m going to be so much faster. I don’t think I’m giving up that much power in the punching. Guys like (ex-champ) Chris Weidman, (Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza), (ex-champ) Luke Rockhold – brothers have got some size on me. I have to be real creative. But in reality I think I’m a competitor and I will find a way to do what I need to do.”

On GSP’s condition: “What is colitis? Exactly. I don’t have questions what it means. And I’m not saying he doesn’t have the condition that he has. But was he even scheduled to fight? I think it’s a method in which he’s going to buy some extra time…I think he’s smart, and I think he doesn’t have to take that risk, once again. He’s already done what he needs to do. And I really don’t think he wants to reign over a division and defend the title – all these guys coming back-to-back-to-back. He wants fights that are important to him and I don’t blame him.”

On St-Pierre: “Does Georges need to fight me? No. He’s done what he needed to do. He’s been through the specialists, he’s been through the freestyle fighters, and he’s been through the fighters that are the wrestlers with heavy hands. He’s done it. He’s coming back in the sport because he built the blueprint for the pay-per-view. We’ve sort of seen it take off, the sport started really catching fire. Now he wants to come back and participate in some of those points. He doesn’t have nothing to prove. And I’m not the guy he’ll want to fight right now.”

On possible fights with Rafael dos Anjos and Robbie Lawler: “I’m open to any fight – anything that makes sense for me. But right now, I’m not putting myself on a box and saying, ‘These are my next guys.’ Who else is doing that? What other division beside my division is forced to actually compete against the No. 1 contender? That’s forced to say you have to fight this guy? Nobody else is in that position. With that said, I’m just keeping my options open.”

On when he might return: “I’ve just been praying over it and giving it some thought and, man, I really don’t feel like I need to do it. Me and (coach Duke Roufus) were in there hitting pads, working on technique and stuff yesterday. I feel like a beast. I’m going to pray over it, we’ll see in the next week or so.”