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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Tyron Woodley picked up a major win last weekend in Macau when he stopped Dong Hyun Kim in the first round at UFC Fight Night 48. However, despite the major move forward in his UFC career, the step they'd like him to take isn't the one he's got in mind.
UFC President Dana White threw him under the bus a bit on Friday after the UFC 177 weigh-ins, explaining that they tried to set up a fight between Woodley and Hector Lombard, but claiming that Woodley wants nothing to do with that matchup. Here's how White explained it (via FoxSports.com):
"I sat down with Woodley after his fight in China and he won easily, quick in and out, and I said 'we need you again, what do you think about fighting Hector Lombard in Australia, main event?.' He says 'he's a teammate, I don't want to fight my teammates' and I said 'dude, your teammates, you're like three of the top five (Woodley, Lombard, and Robbie Lawler), you have to fight each other. I talked to [American Top Team owner] Dan Lambert, and I said this is the fight we want to make, so Lambert hits me back and says Lombard's in, he accepted the fight, still talking to Woodley. He hits me back again and says Woodley's out, he won't take the fight."
"So I'm flying here, I'm literally on the plane, we're just about to go wheels up and I get a text from Hector Lombard that says 'please get this Woodley fight done for me, I want this fight so bad, he's a two-faced phony and I want to beat his ass.' Literally what he said. So I called Woodley when I landed and said 'obviously this isn't a teammate thing because here's what your teammate just said and he wants this fight bad.' He said 'he can say whatever he wants, he's about him and always been about him, this fight doesn't work for me and my brand' and he started telling me all these reasons he didn't want the fight and I said 'whatever kid, whatever, do your thing. He wants nothing to do with Hector. Hector wants this fight, Woodley does not... Everybody wants the fight except Woodley. He's made it pretty clear he does not want to fight Hector Lombard."
For his part in the proceedings, Lombard took to Twitter with some additional comments, calling Woodley out further.
Penick's Analysis: There's some clear heat there from Lombard's side, but apparently Woodley really doesn't want a piece of it. Whatever his reasons are, the UFC won't be happy about that, and that's evidenced by White essentially imploding his own arguments about initially turning down the fight. Now, it's not necessarily a great matchup for him, but if he's going to make a run up the top end of this division, Lombard and Lawler are two names he may have to face, no matter his team affiliation. But obviously that's not a factor for Lombard when it comes to Woodley.
[Hector Lombard photo (c) Henry Dziekan III]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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