Tyron Woodley Claims He’s Already Accepted Fight With “Actor” Colby Covington

There are reasons to believe it won’t happen, but Tyron Woodley is claiming he’s already accepted a fight with Colby Covington, shortly removed from his defeat at UFC Vegas.

Woodley says he’s agreed to fight the “actor” Covington

Just last Saturday, Woodley was handed a one-sided, decision loss by Gilbert Burns. The fight marked the first time Woodley was competing, since he lost the welterweight belt to Kamaru Usman in March, 2019.

Well, due to how the fight unfolded, there’s been plenty of discussion and debate about the future of Woodley. But, while speaking to ESPN since the pivotal loss, the former champ made the following comments (quotes via MMA Fighting).

“They offered me that fight, I told them I’m in,” Woodley said. “I mean, I just don’t want to talk a lot about Colby because Colby is an actor, man.

I know what he is doing and it makes sense and it’s kind of fun to watch but, at the end of the day, Colby has turned me down five or six times.

But I think after losing two fights back-to-back I think it may be a time he may accept it because he may think I’m down and out.”

“That was the first thing they did. They wanted to see if I was alright then they offered me the fight against Colby. I told Malki (Kawa) to make sure you tell them today, yes.

Don’t wait until tomorrow, tell them today yes. I got a contusion I’ve got to deal and I can’t fight anyway for 45 to 60 days because of the cut.

I’ve been icing six, seven times a day, icing, ibuprofen, so I’ve been doing the right stuff. Fighting Colby right now is like fighting this race war.

This brutality and just the unsettling climate of our culture. I’m just going to take it as that. So, they have offered me Colby and I once again have accepted again and we will see what happens.”

But will this fight happen?

So, there’s a couple of things to look at here, in terms of whether Woodley – Covington might actually, finally happen.

First, it is interesting to hear that the UFC has apparently tabled this bout. Since Covington’s crushing loss to Usman in December, he has repeatedly called for a rematch.

The UFC, however, was planning to have Jorge Masvidal challenge the champ next. But, talks for that fight have yet to succeed.

It would then seem, based off Woodley’s comments, that the UFC isn’t looking at having Colby fight Usman next, even though talks for the Masvidal bout have stalled.

The big question is, however, will Covington accept this bout? 

Since Woodley is coming off back-to-back, decisive losses, one could argue that Covington has much more to lose than gain, by facing the former champ. He’s also coming off a loss, but his bout with Usman was competitive until the fifth and final round.

“Chaos” has claimed recently that he agreed to fight Woodley, when the UFC was scrambling for bouts. But, if you’ve followed “Chaos” in recent years, you know it’s not always easy to tell when he’s being serious or not.