“I feel like Usman never beat me, I beat myself" - Tyron Woodley on title loss at UFC 235
UFC welterweight Tyron Woodley recently stated he doesn’t believe Kamaru Usman was the individual responsible for his title loss at UFC 235.
Heading into that clash for the UFC welterweight title, Woodley was riding high after successfully defending his title against Stephen Thompson, Demian Maia and Darren Till. On the flip side, Usman had been on an absolute tear through the division but had not tested himself against someone on Woodley’s level.
Tyron Woodley explains UFC 235 loss to Kamaru Usman
In the end, “The Nigerian Nightmare” completely dominated the fight and took the title away from Woodley. The former welterweight champion hasn’t been able to recover from the loss and went on to lose to Gilbert Burns and Colby Covington.
During a recent interview with RT Sport, Tyron Woodley went into detail about his feelings about the fight.
“I feel like Usman never beat me, I beat myself. I feel like I didn’t show up that day. The way that I looked, looking back at the fight, the version of Tyron that you guys know and have seen, the dominant one, the explosive one, had I fought like that version of Tyron, I would’ve knocked him out in the first round," said Tyron Woodley.
There are a whole lot of ifs and buts in the world of mixed martial arts and there’s no way of knowing what would have happened if Woodley was at 100%. Nobody can deny he wasn’t performing to his full potential, but that should not take away from how impressive Usman looked that night in Las Vegas.
Usman has gone on to defend the title successfully against Colby Covington, Jorge Masvidal and Gilbert Burns, with a rematch against Gamebred scheduled for UFC 261 next month.
On the flip side, Tyron Woodley is at a crossroads in his career this weekend at UFC 260 as he prepares to meet Vicente Luque in a vital clash at 170 pounds.
If Woodley has an impressive showing and wins, he could vault himself right back into the top-five conversation. However, if he loses, many will wonder whether or not his time at the top has come to an end.