UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley has revealed that he’s now in training for a still to be announced fight in July.
“As you guys have heard, champ camp just kicked off,” Woodley told FOX Sports’ PROcast. “I can’t release who it is yet, but your boy is going to be fighting in July. So stay tuned for the details on that.”
A July fight means that Woodley will be fighting on either the UFC 213 event in Las Vegas on July 8th during International Fight Week, or UFC 214 which takes place on July 24th in Anaheim, California.
There’s room for a Woodley title fight on both, with UFC 213’s biggest fight currently being an eagerly awaited bantamweight title fight between TUF 25 coaches Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw, while UFC 214 is earmarked as the likely landing spot for light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier’s rematch with Jon Jones.
As for who his opponent might be, that’s all being kept under wraps for the time being.
Current No.3 contender Demian Maia is the fighter that would make most sense right now, though he’s already booked to fight the No.5 ranked Jorge Masvidal at UFC 211 on May 13th, so he’d need to not only win, but also emerge relatively unscathed in order to be ready to fight Woodley in July.
Some fans are pinning their hopes on a more ‘out there’ booking, such as Nick Diaz returning to face the champion, or Conor McGregor putting his boxing ambitions on hold to step up and fight for the welterweight title, but both of those options seem unlikely at this stage.
Whoever it is, Woodley is making sure he’s going to get a head-start in his training after having spent time recently testing out his acting abilities with parts in Sylvester Stallone’s ‘Escape Plan 2’ and 50 Cent’s ‘The Chosen One.’
