Tyron Woodley To Undergo Shoulder Surgery After Nate Diaz Fight Falls Through

Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley has now given up on chasing a fight with Nate Diaz at UFC 219 and is now set to undergo shoulder surgery instead.

The UFC had been trying to put a title fight together between the two recently to spice up their end-of-year event in Las Vegas, but Diaz allegedly demanding a $15 million payday proved to be a hurdle that could not be overcome.

“Nate Diaz is obviously scared, homie,” Woodley told TMZ. “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.”

As such, Woodley is now going to spend time ensuring that he’s 100% healthy the next time he does defend his belt.

“I am gonna go ahead and undergo the surgery on my shoulder. I decided a couple days ago. 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.”

With Woodley now ruled out of UFC 219, White has acknowleged that the promotion is likely to proceed with a headline fight featuring a previously confirmed women’s featherweight title encounter between Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino and Holly Holm.

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.