Morning Report: Stephen Thompson says Tyron Woodley is scared to fight him

When Tyron Woodley knocked out Robbie Lawler to win the UFC welterweight championship at UFC 201, most people assumed that Woodley’s first defense would be against No. 1 contender Stephen Thompson, who was just coming off an impressive domination of former title challenger Rory MacDonald. However, Woodley threw Thompson and the rest of the MMA world a curveball when in his post-fight statements he said that he wanted to fight either Nick Diaz or Georges St-Pierre and that Thompson needed to fight Lawler first. Since then, St-Pierre has also expressed an interest in the fight (should he be able to come to terms with the UFC about his return), and Demian Maia has also staked a claim to a title shot after dominating former interim champion Carlos Condit.

All in all, the prospects for a Wonderboy title shot are looking pretty grim and perhaps because of this, Thompson has started to speak out about the current champion. In an interview with Submission Radio recently, Thompson took the proverbial gloves off, calling the champion a hypocrite and saying that Woodley is refusing to fight him because he’s scared.

“I’m glad I did hold back [on the UFC 201 post-fight show]. That just shows my self-control, and I knew a lot of people like my students were watching then. But if I could have gone back, or if I could have gotten him in a room with closed doors, I would definitely let him know at that time, you’re crazy. When you were a few months ago preaching how you deserve that fight, you deserve the fight, give it to you when you were ranked number FOUR and they still gave it to you. And now you’re doing this to me? It sounds like you’re a hypocrite, man. That’s just crazy talk. It sounds like to me you’re scared. You’re scared to fight me. Let’s do this, let’s go [laughs]. I don’t know what else to say without throwing in a few cuss words.”

Thompson is of course talking about the moment when he realized Woodley didn’t want to fight him. After knocking out Lawler, Woodley went on the UFC post-fight show on Fox Sports which Thompson was co-hosting that evening. When Thompson pitched a potential title fight between the two of them later this year, that is when Woodley informed Thompson that he felt Thompson should fight Robbie Lawler next. That was the incident which spurred Woodley being labeled “The Choosey One” and brought out the heretofore unseen trash talking side of Thompson.

When asked Thompson to clarify his feelings on if Woodley was actually scared to fight him, Thompson had this to say:

“Well as hard as he’s fighting it, it does seem that way. If it was just the money – and it doesn’t seem like the UFC’s going to give it to him – okay, I’ll fight the number one contender. But now it’s going crazy. Now he’s throwing racism out there and now he’s just kind of going over and beyond of the whole situation, to be honest with you. And yeah man, it’s starting to seem that way. I mean, you’re the champion, you should be taking all newcomers – especially when you just get that belt. You have the belt of for thirty seconds and you’re already shutting me down, asking for a money fight? It doesn’t work that way pal…

“What champion doesn’t accept the number one contender? You know what I mean? That’s just how it goes. You defend that title a few times before you ever starting asking for a money fight. Come on, what’s going on? I mean, you hear Conor McGregor doing that, but Tyron’s nowhere near the level of Conor McGregor when it comes to marketing and popularity. He’s just not there. I think everybody else, the fans see that as well. And it upset not just me, but a lot of other fans and people that follow the UFC too.”

Though no official announcement has been made for Woodley’s first title …

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