Tyron Woodley: If a guy won't get me to a title shot, I'm not fighting him

UFC welterweight Tyron Woodley says he had a plan for the division’s picture that the promotion was behind.

First, he would fight ex-champ Johny Hendricks (17-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC), a man who he’d previously met on the wrestling mats when they were in college. Then, Matt Brown and Carlos Condit would fight each other. The winner of his fight would be next in line for a title shot, and the winner of the latter bout would be next.

“That way it’s a natural evolution of who’s fighting next,” Woodley told MMAjunkie Radio.

Well, things don’t always work out as planned.

Hendricks, according to Woodley (15-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC), passed on the bout. And so there went the most important part of his proposed welterweight tournament, which would have been the second such competition after an informal four-man draw at UFC 171 which pitted him against Condit and Hector Lombard against Jake Shields while Hendricks and Robbie Lawler battled for the vacant title.

With Lawler (25-10 MMA, 10-4 UFC) now the champ and Rory MacDonald (18-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) set to fight for the title at UFC 189, Woodley thought Hendricks would get him closest to the No. 1 contender position.

“It really was in Johny’s court,” Woodley said. “And you know Johny, he’s not scared to fight anybody. I’m not proclaiming that he’s scared of me and he don’t want this matchup. I’m a realist; I’m not going to sh-t out things that aren’t factual. But why wouldn’t I try to get under his skin a little bit and try to make him take this fight, because I want to intercept where he’s at. I’m kind of sick of the trilogies and the rematches.

“Last week, they called me and said, ‘Johny said he wants to wait.’ I’m like, ‘Wait? You get an option? When did we get that? You get an option to wait and watch the fight?’”

And so, Woodley is currently unbooked for his next fight. He was offered a bout with Jake Ellenberger (30-9 MMA, 9-5 UFC) in July at UFC 189, but he turned it down. The way he explains it, there is no reason to take a fight with anyone who won’t advance his career.

“Why am I going to fight Ellenberger, who’s on three losses, who beat a guy that was on three losses?” he said. “It was the battle to stay relevant. A victory is not going to put him in position to fight for the title. I can go and find somebody who’s ranked 20th, 15th, that can give me a great matchup and will look great for the fans. But if these people are not in a position that their next fight is going to secure a fight for the world title, then I’m not fighting them. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Ellenberger is moving on, fighting Stephen Thompson at the July 11 pay-per-view. He didn’t take the booking without a parting shot for Woodley.

“Hey Tyron,” he wrote on Twitter. “Stop shaking. I got an opponent. Y’don’t hafta peek between the curtains.”

It appears natural evolution will take a different course. Hendricks sees himself as the No. 1 contender and could wait for the winner of the summer bout. Brown is scheduled to meet Tim Means on the same card, and Condit is scheduled to meet Thiago Alves next month.

Woodley, who’s ranked No. 3 on the UFC’s top-15, is waiting for a dance partner. He may wait a while if Hendricks wants the same. But that, he said, is the result of the promotion’s constant need for fights.

“(UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva’s job is to make contenders, to constantly matchmake, where there’s always an emerging contender,” he said. “But what we’ve done is there’s so many damn UFC fights that people are scattered out. They’re not in sync together.”

Woodley had hoped to do that, of course. As he found out, it’s hard to get others to follow your plans.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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