UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is headed under the knife after deciding to have surgery on his injured shoulder.
Woodley has been contemplating the surgery since his win over Demian Maia in July but when a potential fight with Nate Diaz was rumored for UFC 219 in December, he put everything on hold.
Unfortunately, Woodley says that Diaz essentially turned down the fight with his financial demands and there’s no longer any chance he’s going to step back into the Octagon before the end of the year.
“Nate Diaz is obviously scared, homie,” Woodley told TMZ on Wednesday. “Someone says ‘hey I want to get paid $15 million’ to fight a fighter and they’ve never received that, not even to fight Conor McGregor, that’s a nice way of saying ‘no, I don’t want to fight him’. That’s like me saying, yeah, I’ll fight f–king Stipe Miocic — just pay me $35 million. That’s basically saying no.
“Unfortunately it would have been a crazy card Dec. 30 in Las Vegas I believe and it would have been a crazy end of the year. Unfortunately, it’s not taking place. I won’t be fighting Nate Diaz. That’s how the cookie crumbles.”
With an upcoming film role and his analyst duties as part of the FOX Sports broadcast team, Woodley has plenty to keep him busy through the holidays but it will also allow him the time off to get his shoulder fixed.
Shoulder surgery will undoubtedly knock Woodley out of action for several months but the reigning welterweight champion knows that it has to happen so he can compete at full health for his next title defense in 2018.
“I am gonna go ahead and undergo the surgery on my shoulder. I decided a couple days ago,” Woodley said. “It’s gonna be a bummer but at the end of the day if nobody want to step up and fight somebody that’s not even 100-percent in their one shoulder, then I might as well get my shoulder to where it should be so I can continue [to defend] my belt with a little less risk.”
