Two of the welterweight division’s top contenders Johny Hendricks and Tyron Woodley will now battle it out at UFC 192 after narrowly missing out on a title shot opportunity in favor of Carlos Condit.
Hendricks lost his title to Robbie Lawler in their rematch back in December of last year by split decision, but got right back to winning ways with a unanimous decision win over another top five contender Matt Brown at UFC 185 in March.
Remaining rooted on the No.1 contender spot in the division,’Bigg Rigg’ had hoped that would be enough to secure him a trilogy fight with Lawler next, but the UFC appear to have decided that it would be best to put a little more distance between them before going down that route again, and so he’s now been handed another tough assignment to remain in title contention.
That comes in the form of Woodley who’s currently ranked No.3 in the division and has recently compiled back-to-back wins over respected oppposition in Dong Hyun Kim and former TUF winner Kelvin Gastelum.
Prior to that he lost out by decision to recent title challenger Rory MacDonald, and going a little further back he actually defeated the man who’s now been given the next shot at the title, Carlos Condit. That came about due to a freak injury though when Condit suffered serious knee damage during a takedown attempt from Woodley though, resulting in a second round TKO stoppage and lessening the impact of the win.
Both Hendricks and Woodley will no doubt be frustrated that they’ve missed out on the chance to fight the champion, but all signs point to their forthcoming bout being a title eliminator.
Hendricks Vs Woodley joins a relatively strong main-card line-up for the show which already features a headline light-heavyweight title encounter between Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson, while Rashad Evans also returns to fight Ryan Bader.
