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Tyron Woodley fires back at Nick Diaz after recent rant
Tyron Woodley wanted to give Nick Diaz the first crack at his welterweight title, but it doesn't appear that is the plan any longer.
Woodley issued the challenge just minutes after knocking out Robbie Lawler at UFC 201 in Atlanta, but Diaz responded by saying he didn't care about the title and that he was already on the top of the sport with the welterweight champion calling him out.
Well, Woodley didn't take too kindly to Diaz's response so he fired back with one of his own just hours later.
"He made no sense. He wants to fight the best, I've got the gold, but he don't want the gold. He made pay-per-view without the gold and he don't do anything I do in training so we'll see how that goes. You're not me, you're not supposed to do what I do in training, idiot," Woodley said when speaking to TMZ.
"I think Nick Diaz is a great fighter. If he realizes, I actually was giving him credit and I was actually wanting to fight him because he's one of the best welterweights in the history of the sport, I think his answer would have been quite different."
Woodley says after hearing Diaz's rant, he started to question the welterweight contender's smarts considering he just passed up on a guaranteed title shot and a massive payday for accepting the challenge.
Instead, Woodley says his attention has already shifted to a potential showdown with former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre and he's putting Diaz in the rearview mirror.
"I think I might actually end up getting the opportunity to fight Georges St-Pierre, which is going to be a bigger payday so he can go fight for a non-plastic belt against somebody else. He might have walked his way out of several, seven figures," Woodley said.
Woodley mentioned St-Pierre as a possible opponent along with Diaz but now it seems he's only thinking about fighting the Canadian legend assuming he returns from a self-imposed sabbatical that's lasted for three years.
In many ways, Woodley knows St-Pierre is a tougher challenge than Diaz and he's probably the biggest fight anybody in the welterweight division could land right now.
So for all those reasons, Woodley prefers the St-Pierre fight and Diaz can earn his next payday somewhere else.
"He said he wants to fight the best and he's seen my fights and seen what I do. Me and him were supposed to fight in Strikeforce before he went over to the UFC. So if he acts like I'm not a worthy opponent or I'm a person that doesn't pose certain threats, I do," Woodley said about Diaz. "Georges St-Pierre beat him, took him down, controlled him. Georges St-Pierre doesn't have the power I possess. He doesn't have that ability to close the gap as we saw in my last fight.
"Either one of those fights make sense to me. They're both tough opponents. They know I'm no walk in the park. I'm just trying to get paid, I'm going to be straight up. Actually, I think the Georges St-Pierre fight is a little bit closer than Nick Diaz's fight."
