Tyron Woodley Says Stephen Thompson Has Gotten Under His Skin

UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley fought Stephen Thompson to a majority draw in their first fight at UFC 205, now the rematch is set for UFC 209 this March. Woodley, who will be making his second title defense at UFC 209, says that the challenger has started getting under his skin.

“He got under my skin so much that I’m just going to go ahead and fight the dude,” Woodley said on The Morning Wood. “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.”

Woodley still lays claim to the fact that the challenger in Thompson never defeat the champion, Woodley says that Thompson making it a close fight shouldn’t earn him a rematch.

“What ever happened to the phrase, ‘You have to beat the champion’? Is that a lost art?” Woodley said. “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. Two rounds were completely lopsided, and three rounds outside of that were very close,” he continued. “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.”

UFC 209 takes place on Saturday, March 4 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson headlining.