The Official MMA Thread: Alvarez TKOs Gaethje, Ngannou KOs Overeem, Holloway TKOs Aldo

LUClEN wrote: »

Vannata is entertaining af

Will Munny wrote: »

Vannata looks like he breaks into cars in his spare time.

LUClEN wrote: »

How come white fighters always come out to the least fight-inspiring music?

@Will Munny

Rampage12 wrote: »

LUClEN wrote: »

Why do white guys in MMA usually look flabby and sick?

But flabby and sick still beat the ripped black guy tonight.

Tyron Woodley gets that fans love brawls, but 'guess what – I love being the world champion'

LAS VEGAS – Champion Tyron Woodley can understand why people would be less that enthused about the mostly uneventful five-round scrap that had him once more narrowly retaining his UFC welterweight title over Stephen Thompson.

But that doesn’t mean he won’t stand by it. While he was frustrated himself at times with the “chess match” – and, in hindsight, sees some alternative paths he could have taken against Thompson (13-2-1 MMA, 8-2-1 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 209 pay-per-view headliner – Woodley (17-3-1 MMA, 7-2-1 UFC) ultimately had one concern on his mind at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena: walking away with his belt once more.

And if that meant hearing some boos in the process, so be it.

“It’s so easy to say it from the seat that you’re sitting in,” Woodley said after the event. “But when you’re fighting a world-class fighter who’s finished so many opponents, so many knockouts, so many tricks up his sleeve, sometimes you have to be patient, and you have to find that moment. That moment came in the fourth round. It came in the first round the last fight.

“This fight, it really didn’t come until the fifth round. Granted, I could’ve created that atmosphere. I could have done more feints, more level changes, more takedowns, attempts, combinations. But at the end of the day, if I worried about what the fans said, I wouldn’t be in this position right now. I love the fans. They make our sport. They make the UFC what it is. But I’m the person that’s in there fighting, and this is the toughest division in the world.”

It wasn’t just the fans who didn’t seem too excited with the rematch after an action-packed “Fight of the Night” first encounter at UFC 205 in November. While UFC commentator and in-cage interviewer Joe Rogan was quick to defend the strategic display between the two, even some of the fighters’ colleagues were quick to both express their discontentment and argue about the scoring.

That was also the case with UFC President Dana White who, in spite of understanding the choices made by the headliners, said he disagreed with the decision and questioned whether Woodley had done himself any favors fanbase-wise.

Woodley said he didn’t take offense at White’s comments on the scoring of the razor-thin scrap, especially when he takes into consideration the UFC president’s well-known preference for ? brawls like those put on by the likes of Diego Sanchez.

“It’s not always the most attractive fight to watch guys that are playing a chess match, so no, it didn’t offend me at all,” Woodley said.

But, at the end of the day, the champ, who’s No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA welterweight rankings (and No. 9 pound-for-pound), has to fend for himself once that cage door closes. And, in facing a dangerous counterattacker such as Thompson, he knew he had to put aside his fight-finishing instincts to manage an intelligent battle.

“I want to see Dana White get it in there and fight ‘Wonderboy,'” Woodley said. “Watch everybody else that walked in there. Watch Patrick Cote. Watch Robert Whittaker. Watch all these guys who thought they were just going to bulldoze him and they disrespected his style. I did the opposite. I embraced his style.

“What happens is, you think you’ve got it figured out, and kicks and punches come from weird angles. You find yourself without this (belt), and you find yourself knocked out. So, I know this is a sport where you guys love to see knockouts. You love to see the gore. You love to see blood, guys getting beat up, and then he find a way to come back, and then the other guy.

“I love watching that as well, but guess what – I love being the world champion. And sometimes it’s not the sexiest fight on Earth.”

After spending a lot of time and money putting together a camp for Thompson’s unique style, Woodley is now “ecstatic” to to train for a “regular freestyle fighter.” And after three straight anti-climatic wins – a title victory over a teammate in Robbie Lawler, a draw with Thompson that had its result initially misread, and Saturday’s criticized display – he’s ready to “finally feel the feeling like I’m the champion” moving forward.

Whom that will be against remains a mystery. And Woodley is not about to enlighten it further. While the scrap between Demian Maia (24-6 MMA, 18-6 UFC) and Jorge Masvidal (32-11 MMA, 9-4 UFC), which is set for May 13’s UFC 211 event, may very well elect a contender, Woodley sees variables and also hinted at being prepared to, should injuries occur, fill in for either party of the yet-to-be-scheduled Georges St-Pierre (25-2 MMA, 19-2 UFC) vs. Michael Bisping (30-7 MMA, 20-7 UFC) showdown.

In any case, after a lesson learned the hard way, he won’t be the one naming his opponents as of now.

“If I say I want to fight someone, then the whole Internet goes crazy,” Woodley said. “So what I’m going to do is, I’m going to do on vacation, I’m shooting a movie next week, taking my family to Puerto Rico after that and, you know, I’ll let my managers and Dana White figure that out.

“If I call somebody out, it’s a problem. And we all know that. But we see my peers not only call out, but get fights that are kind of maybe unorthodox matchups, and it’s never an issue. It’s never a problem. Therefore, I’m just going to continue to get the contracts, sign the contracts, get the W.

“And, at the end of the day, as long as I keep fighting and winning, then you’re not going to be able to deny me what I’m deserved.”