According to former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, he’s currently in talks to fight Colby Covington in either September or October at a UFC on ESPN+ event.
“Looks like I’m going to be fighting Colby Covington,” Woodley said on ex-UFC fighter Mick Swick’s podcast. “The date, we’re waiting on right now. I’m pretty confident it’s going to be a main event. Main event ESPN+ me versus Colby.
“We’re getting real close on a date. September/October. It’s going down for sure.”
Woodley and Covington are former training partners, but there’s no love lost between theme and now they’ll get to settle their differences in the Octagon.
“This is a big fight for me,” Woodley said. “This is probably the biggest fight of my career to be honest. Because the situation, it’s bragging rights. He’s talked all this sh*t, but in my mind, he really knows what time it is but now because he has talked that much sh*t, he’s got to try to live up to it. He’s got to try to beat me. He’s been calling me out for three or four years damn near. So now it’s to the point where it’s personal and the other fights didn’t really mean as much.
“I feel like [Kamaru] Usman and Gilbert are kind of goofy and I really didn’t feel no animosity towards them. But I feel that with Colby. Some of the other guys I felt the urgency because of how good they were, Carlos Condit and Robbie Lawler, those guys are the OG’s. “The Natural Born Killer,” “Ruthless,” “Gorilla” [Darren Till], all these monstrous fighters that I got to bring it to them cause they sure as f**k going to bring it to me. I think Colby’s going to bring me that, the first time I get the opponent at the press conference, we probably just going to break the internet to be honest.”
Woodley also sees a win over Covington as the perfect way to wipe the slate clean after losing his last two fights.
“There’s enough people that want me to hurt him so bad that if I do it, now I’m a hero. We’re not even talking about losing two fights in a row. We’re talking about the kid that finally took care of Colby Covington.
“Usman really didn’t take care of him. He won but had he not dropped him twice, Usman probably would have lost that fight.”
While it’s undoubtedly going to be a hard-fought fight inside the Octagon, Woodley also knows there’s going to be a whole other mental battle happening outside of it before the fight takes place, and he feels he’s ready for it.
“He’s gonna try to use everything in mental warfare. He’s going to try to be racist, he’s going to try to talk about stuff from my personal life, he’s gonna bluff and make up sh*t about the gym. He’s going to ask all these daggone questions cause he was in St. Louis with me so anything he can turn into something he’s going to do that.
“Guess what? I’m going to match him and make him look stupid.”
