Tyron Woodley Says He’s Not Turned Down Colby Covington Fight At UFC 233

The UFC have been struggling to find a headliner for UFC 233 in January, but it appears that a fight between welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and Colby Covington might not be off the table just yet.

This past weekend Dana White indicated that Woodley wasn’t willing to commit to any fight, let alone at UFC 233, but the star has now disputed that claim.

“I’ve agreed to fight Colby,” Woodley stated on Ariel Helwani MMA Show on ESPN. “I’ve agreed to fight really anybody; that’s the funny part. I just asked for a little more time before I can confirm (that my hand is ready for a fight). I’ve never said no to Jan. 26. Let’s get that on record. I’ve got a lot of strong roots in California, so it would be silly for me not to want to fight there.”

However, Woodley isn’t going to be pressured into committing to the fight before he’s 100% sure that he’ll be fit enough to do himself justice in the Octagon.

“I don’t want to be remembered as a guy that lost a fight to Colby Covington, or anybody else, because he knew he wasn’t 100 percent (healthy) or wasn’t given the chance to at least go through the physician that performed the surgery on his hand to get his clearance.”

“If I go out there and my hand’s not ready to go and I fight Colby Covington and I come up short that night, nobody’s going to care that my hand’s hurt.”

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.