Tyron Woodley’s Plans to Train With GSP & Firas Zahabi, Point to a Very Motivated, Ex-Champ

Tyron Woodley has some work to do yet, before he’s within reach of reclaiming the UFC’s welterweight title. But, the former champ’s recent announcement he intends to train with Firas Zahabi and George St-Pierre, certainly signals Woodley is highly, highly motivated to win back the belt.

Even before Woodley dropped a one-sided decision to Kamaru Usman this past March, some questioned if the now former champ was truly focused on fighting. The argument being that Woodley has lots going on outside of the cage, in terms of his music, acting and commentating gigs.

Recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s “MMA Show”

Well, Woodley has repeatedly argued that’s not the case, and he’s also campaigned for another shot at the welterweight belt. During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s “MMA Show”, Woodley revealed he’s done some training with Tristar’s head instructor Zahabi, and he had this to say about how it went (quotes via MMA Junkie):

“Watching me train with Firas, we had never trained like that before,” Woodley said. “And actually, I thought we were just shadowboxing, kind of moving around lightly. But he actually – with no ego, with no pride – took time out of his day. He had fighters fighting that day and he really took the time to work on the minor things.

“When you’re at this level, it’s all about the millimeters – it’s not about the miles, it’s not about the marathon. It’s about correcting millimeters, and it was like an instant sync.”

“It was a phenomenal session,” Woodley said. “It was a blessing to be able to do that. It was a blessing to be able to train with Georges St. Pierre. Yes, people, I’ll be training with Georges St. Pierre. We will not fight – it’s very obvious. There’s no point for me not to train with one of the greatest, if not the greatest welterweight of all time and sharpen myself.”

Woodley went on to say that he wasn’t really motivated to fight Usman, or Covington for that matter, aside from his desire to “smash his face in”. But, the former champ said he’s excited by the prospect of what he can learn via Zahabi and the Tristar camp.

What could this mean?

So, when you consider that Woodley’s interested in adding a new camp in the mix, at the age of 37, and after all he’s accomplished, this is pretty interesting news. This development also comes not long after Woodley’s other coach, Duke Roufus, reported Woodley’s skills have reached a new level, on account of his training at the famous, Wild Card boxing gym. Could we see an even more dangerous version of Woodley moving forward?