Tyron Woodley: What Happens Next?

This past weekend we saw Tyron Woodley lose to Gilbert Burns in a fight that wasn’t even close. This means that Woodley has lost twice back to back in dominating fashion - one of which being the fight where he walked in as champion. Woodley hasn’t won a single round since 2018 and after Saturday night, there’s a big question mark surrounding what he does next but I’m here to try and answer the question: what happens next?

First of all, the desire of fighting doesn’t seem there for Woodley, he doesn’t look like he wants to fight at all yet he still goes out anyway. I don’t know if he’s lost his passion for fighting however his last two fights weren’t brilliant performances - in fact, the opposite. Woodley does have fantastic talent and when he’s at his best, he’s an elite fighter but recently, we’ve not seen that talent.

In his fight against Kamaru Usman, he looked lost, he had no answer for Usman and couldn’t stop Usman winning the title. Woodley wasn’t there mentally and essentially looked like he gave Usman the championship and then when he fought Gilbert Burns, he put on another lacklustre performance. Both of these fights had the majority of the judges giving the fight a 50-44 in favour of Woodley’s opponents and for a top contender, that’s not ideal for the chosen one.

So what’s next for Tyron Woodley? Personally, there’s a few fights in the UFC he could have and an interesting one could be against Michael Chiesa. Leon Edwards and Tyron Woodley would also be a great fight and that could be fascinating and a win for either man could really do great things. Honestly, I wouldn’t be opposed for Woodley to fight Stephen Thompson for a third time however I couldn’t stomach a five rounder after their second encounter but as a solid 3 round co main event to a PPV, in there. This is an ambitious plan for Woodley but I’d love to see him on ONE Championship, I think that environment would be a great change of scenery for him.

Is Tyron Woodley finished? No, I don’t believe he is. Yes, Woodley is 38 however I do think he can win a couple more fights - I don’t think he has to retire as of now just because he had two disappointing fights, just remember, he was UFC champion just last year. T-Wood is an elite fighter and I think he should continue fighting.