Woodley, Thompson make no apologies for going cautiously at UFC 209
The UFC 209 main event welterweight title bout between Stephen Thompson and champion Tyron Woodley turned into the ultimate chess match.
Many of the 13,150 people in attendance Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena, who paid a collective $2.4 million to see a rematch of an action-packed draw in November, were clearly more in the mood for checkers.
A really bloody game of checkers.
Boos rained down throughout much of the championship tilt, with only the occasional pause for a brave soul to make a feeble attempt at humor by shouting a movie line or larger groups of fans rhythmically encouraging the combatants to “fight, fight, fight.”
Both fighters felt the perceived lack of action was actually an intense battle of cerebral warfare that played out over 25 minutes.
Woodley retained the title with a majority decision, largely on the strength of a third-round takedown and a flurry over the final minute of the fight that nearly finished Thompson.
“I know this is a sport where people love to see knockouts and blood and gore and crazy comebacks,” the champion said late Saturday night at a news conference. “I love watching all that stuff too, but I really love being the world champion. Sometimes it’s not going to be the sexiest fight on earth.
“They want to see the bulldozer come forward because that’s what they’ve seen out of me so many times, but a couple times when I did that you saw those double right hands upside the head. He’s probably the best counterattacker in our division. I had to be patient and block out the boos. I had to find the right entry to be able to get in and do damage. It took awhile to get there, but I found a way to get it done.”
Woodley said if any fans are unhappy next time he’s fighting, he’d be more than willing to pause the fight so they can step in and take his place.
It was a sentiment echoed by UFC president Dana White, who admitted he had actually scored the fight in Thompson’s favor.
“It’s easy to sit in your seats drinking some beer and eating popcorn and boo people,” White said. “But you’re not in there fighting Tyron Woodley and ‘Wonderboy.’ A lot was at stake and these guys fought the way they thought they needed to in order to win.”
Thompson once again left the cage frustrated. He hoped he had done enough in the first meeting to earn a victory and was thrilled to get a rematch after it was declared a majority draw.
On Saturday, he truly believed he had won as he awaited the reading of the scorecards. Once again, it was not meant to be for the flashy striker with a karate background.
“I’m disappointed,” he admitted. “I worked my whole life to get here and I thought I won the fight. You just can’t leave it in the judges’ hands, so that’s on me.”
Thompson spent most of the first two rounds stalking Woodley around the cage as the champion circled continuously with his back against the cage.
He also found success in the fourth round and felt capturing those three rounds would be his path to the title.
“We’re both counterpunchers,” Thompson said. “He was waiting for me to come in and I was waiting for him. It’s tricky because you have to kind of lure them out. I was throwing a lot of feints and hoping he would bite. In and out, hoping he would go and then I could counter. He wouldn’t bite. He went on his terms. He wouldn’t go when I wanted him to go.
“You always go back and think, ‘I should have done this or I should have done that.’ But all that matters is what you do in that moment and it wasn’t enough. That’s on me.”
Both fighters acknowledged there were things they could have done to force the action. With so much on the line, it became more about not wanting to be the one to make a fatal mistake.
Thompson said he could just feel Woodley waiting to pounce on any error he made by getting too aggressive.
Woodley felt the same way.
“There were moments where maybe I should have faked a shot and came up punching or something like that,” Woodley said. “I could have done more of that, but there were times when the openings just weren’t there. Trying to just jab him is hard because he looks a lot closer than he is and he’s just waiting to fade back and counter.”
For his part, Woodley saw success when he did attack in the third and fifth rounds and that’s why he still has the title. He refused to call out his next challenger, but believes it could well be the winner of a May bout between Demian Maia and Jorge Masvidal.
Woodley would be fine with either. He believes Maia is long overdue for the title shot and said he wouldn’t deny Masvidal such a big opportunity even though they are friends and former training partners.
One thing that’s certain is Woodley won’t be concerned with the reaction from the crowd when he does step in the cage again.
“At the end of the day, if I worried about what the fans say, I wouldn’t be in this position right now,” Woodley said. “I love the fans and they make the UFC what it is, but I’m the person in there fighting and this is the toughest division in the world.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @adamhilllvrj on Twitter.
