LAS VEGAS – UFC President Dana White was more surprised to see Tyron Woodley dominated than Kamaru Usman dominate in the UFC 235 co-headliner.
Woodley’s (19-4-1 MMA, 9-3-1 UFC) welterweight title reign came to an end on Saturday when he suffered a unanimous-decision loss to Usman (15-1 MMA, 10-0 UFC) in the championship contest, which took place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and UFC Fight Pass.
After making four consecutive title defenses, Woodley had proven himself as champion. That didn’t matter to Usman, though, because he produced the most lopsided total strikes deficit to ever take place in a UFC championship bout.
“He completely got outwrestled all night,” White told reporters, including MMAjunkie, post-fight at UFC 235. “The reason I wanted this fight and thought it would be a great fight is because I believed Usman would go after him. Normally Woodley is so fast with his hands and he’s such a good wrestler that most guys can’t do both with him. Usman could do both. Usman could wrestle with him, but I didn’t expect Usman to go in and absolutely dominant him the entire time wherever he wants to go. No, I didn’t see that coming.”
Woodley admitted post-fight that he simply couldn’t get off over the course of the 25-minute bout with Usman. He said he hopes for an immediate rematch given the work he’s put in as champion, but the UFC is already planning on booking Usman’s next fight against Colby Covington (14-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) later this year.
White did not specify what he would like to see out of Woodley next, but he agrees the now ex-champ did not show his best.
“Woodley looked less than flat,” White said. “I don’t know. Did he have an excuse to why he looked bad? I didn’t know if Woodley was going to come in here and say he was hurt or something happened. But yeah, he didn’t look like Woodley tonight. He looked flat.”
For complete coverage of UFC 235, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
