Tyron Woodley is coming off the high of beating Joaquin Buckley and is confident he'll beat Khamzat Chimaev in their upcoming RAF headliner.
Saturday at RAF 12, Woodley got his arm raised for the first time in a while. It was his first combat sports win since defeating Darren Till at UFC 228 in September 2018, which was his fourth and final UFC welterweight title defense. After that, he lost his last four UFC fights, and went 0-3 in the boxing ring.
It's been a long road, but Woodley admits he wasn't locked in like he was during his run to the top of the UFC's welterweight division.
"The monkey was never on my back, because I know why I had those years of lessons," Woodley said on "The Ariel Helwani Show." During my title reign, I had seven years of just
being on fire for God, reading, praying, training three times a day, eating healthy. It was no rap music, no bling-bling, no women – it was nothing. It was focus."
Woodley took to the wrestling mats to face Buckley and won in comeback fashion. That match opened RAF 12, but his next scheduled match will be a headliner against Chimaev in Moscow, Russia. The former UFC middleweight champion has a smothering grappling game in MMA and also has a win against Dillon Danis under the RAF banner. Despite all of the talk about how good Chimaev is when it comes to wrestling, Woodley is confident he will emerge victorious on Sept. 5.
"I'm gonna take out Khamzat," Woodley said. "I'm going to take him out. I promise you. Mark my words.
"Many people thought Joaquin Buckley was going to be the easy match. My gut tells me Khamzat's gonna be the easy match. Watch this. Robbie Lawler, the killer – two Fighter of the Year, back-to-back. The boogeyman. Tyron hadn't fought in 16 months. Darren Till, don't care about his kids. Way bigger than Tyron, punch harder. Tyron backs up. Watch what happens. I'ma beat him like a drum. ... Why not be confident when you believe in God and you train your butt off?"
Woodley doesn't want his confidence to be taken as disrespect. In fact, Woodley admits that if he had to face Chimaev during his welterweight title reign, he would be in for a long night at the office. However, MMA wrestling and pure freestyle wrestling are two different things, and Woodley plans to show up and get his hand raised for the second time in RAF.
"I'm not Dillon Danis that disrespected the culture, disrespected Khabib – I'm a respectful guy," Woodley said. "I think Khamzat's a monster, and that's kind of the reason I wanted the match. As he was fighting and working his way up the UFC, I always thought in my mind, if I had to fight this dude at welterweight, this motherf– would have been a problem, right?
"So, I'm gonna always give him his credit, and he is gonna be a tough match. It may come down to the last minute. It may come down to the last takedown, but I just proved to myself that I can do it. I scored 14 unanswered points and came back for victory."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Tyron Woodley confident he'll beat Khamzat Chimaev 'like a drum' in RAF
