Former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is looking to return to action in the near future, but he’s refusing to fight overseas, despite rumors that he was being targeted for the UFC: London event on March 21st.
“I’m ready to fight soon, man,” woodley confirmed to fans on a live chat this week. “They want me to fight in London. F—k that, I’m not going all the way to London to fight. I’m the five-time world champion, I’m gonna fight f—king here.
“January 18th, January 25th, February 8th, I wanna fight in the States. I don’t wanna go out of the country and fight. When I go out of the country I wanna be on vacation.”
It is worth noting that Woodley has only fought three times outside of the U.S. in his 24-fight career, and on two of those occasions he lost, although he hadn’t exactly travelled far as both were in Canada against Jake Shields and Rory MacDonald.
His last fight overseas was to China well over five years ago, but on that occasion he emerged victorious over Dong Hyun Kim in a fight he finished by TKO in just 61 seconds.
Woodley is coming off a tough title loss though after being dominated by Kamaru Usman, so that may also factor into his thinking regarding sticking closer to home.
As for his potential opponent, Leon Edwards has made it clear that he’s got Woodley in his sights, and he hasn’t yet given up hope that he can get him to fight in London, which would give him the home advantage.
“I feel like the fans are pushing for this now,” Edwards told the Eurobash podcast. “Now, they’re getting what I’ve been saying for years, that I’m the best fighter in the U.K. I’m proving it every fight. I can see that they’re pushing to see that Woodley fight in the London main event and I think that’s the fight that makes sense.
“I’m hoping he takes it, but from what I’m hearing he won’t come to London. He says he’ll fight, but not in London. That makes no sense. We’re in negotiations now and hopefully I’ll know this week. I’m meeting with the UFC, so I’ll have more information about that and what’s going on. What I’m hearing is he doesn’t want to come to London, so we’re trying to force him to come to London.”
