When Tyron Woodley was running the welterweight division, nobody wanted a piece of him. That includes former champ-champ Conor McGregor.

Once upon a time, ‘The Chosen One’ was one of the most feared fighters on the planet, regardless of weight class. During his eight-year run in the UFC, Woodley earned notable victories over Carlos Condit, Kelvin Gastelum, Robbie Lawler, Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, Demian Maia, and Darren Till.

Woodley also held the welterweight title for the better part of three years, and according to the man himself, nobody wanted to step inside the cage with him when he was at his peak.

“Nobody wanted to f*ck with me during the time I was in my prime, just to be honest,” Woodley said in an interview courtesy of Action Network. Georges St-Pierre was asked two or three times to fight me, he didn’t want to fight me. Conor McGregor was flown into Vegas and offered a fight against me. He didn’t want to fight me. Bisping acted like he wanted to fight me, but he didn’t want to fight me.

Nate Diaz was offered to fight me. I accepted. I thought he accepted, because why would they bring me the fight first? I would figure they would bring him to fight first. He said ‘My brand is bigger than his at this moment, and if I lose to him, it’s not gonna help me out. This is a win-win for him.'”

Tyron Woodley headed back to MMA?

Woodley ultimately exited the UFC after coming up short in four straight bouts.

Since then, the Missouri native has tested his mettle in back-to-back boxing bouts against Jake Paul. In their inaugural meeting, Woodley came up short against ‘The Problem Child’ via split decision. Four months later, they’d run it back, but this time, things went much worse for Woodley.

After failing to negotiate another big-money matchup in the sweet science, Woodley revealed that he’s ready for a return to MMA, though no official announcements regarding where or when have been made.

Craig Pekios

Craig Pekios is a freelance writer born and raised in Bettendorf, IA. Joining LowKick MMA in May 2022, Craig has more than 4,000 articles published that focus on the world of MMA and boxing, including news, event previews, results, analysis, and op-eds.