Tyron Woodley dismisses any notion that Kamaru Usman is the greatest welterweight of all time.
Usman (21-4 MMA, 16-3 UFC) is the one who put an end to Woodley’s UFC welterweight title reign. He went on to defend his belt five times, second behind only Georges St-Pierre for most title defenses in the division’s history.
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St-Pierre, who defended his belt nine times, was widely considered the greatest 170-pounder to ever do it, but UFC CEO Dana White insists Usman holds that title. Woodley heavily disagrees.
“Kamaru is not the greatest welterweight of all time,” Woodley told MMA Fighting. “I’m the realest. I had the realest route, I had the realest reign. I was the person who dealt with the most stuff behind the scenes and still managed to win, that I don’t even speak about. I fought all the top contenders that were not big trash talkers.
“Nobody wanted to say a bad word about Demian Maia, Robbie Lawler or ‘Wonderboy’ (Thompson). I fought all the up-and-coming guys. Even Usman and Colby (Covington) and (Darren) Till, those are all up-and-coming guys. He’s not the greatest welterweight of all time. What he is, he is the one that kissed the most ass.”
Woodley thinks it’s absurd to put Usman above St-Pierre.
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“He’s a good fighter,” Woodley said. “He stayed disciplined, but that’s what he is. He’s not the greatest welterweight. How can you even say that? Once you say he’s the greatest and you’re trying to say he’s better than Georges, nobody’s even listening to you after that.”
“The Chosen One” didn’t even have Usman at No. 2. He broke down the reasoning behind his standings.
“When you really think about the era they did it, it’s Georges No. 1. I would say it’s Matt Hughes No. 2,” Woodley said. “Just because we looked up to Matt Hughes and he won nine times when it was a specialist sport, wrestlers vs. strikers vs. grapplers vs. that. We got a chance to sit back and watch those two guys and then kind of carve out our deal. I would say me and Usman are probably tied for third. You can’t say I’m over him because he beat me, but I never got a rematch.
“He fought a sh*t hole of a version of me. I was going through so much crap in life. I don’t even remember the fight. I never went back and watched the fight. I just feel like with his rematch history, Colby got a chance to fight him twice, (Jorge) Masvidal got a chance to fight him twice, Leon Edwards got a chance to fight him twice. I’m the only one that didn’t get a chance to fight him twice because they knew that 9 out of 10 times, if we fought, I’m going to win 9 out of 10 times.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Tyron Woodley: Kamaru Usman not UFC WW GOAT, ‘kissed the most ass’
