Tyron Woodley still sees MMA in his near future.
The former UFC welterweight champion hasn't competed in MMA since suffering his fourth-straight loss to Vicente Luque in March 2021. He has since boxed three times and has two wrestling matches booked for RAF.
As for MMA, Woodley (19-7-1) is open to a return as soon as this year.
"I never retired (from MMA)," Woodley told MMA Junkie Radio. "People just said I retired. You never heard me formally come out and retire, or put my gloves down anywhere, or even say the word retirement. Because I haven't fought MMA since 2021, a lot of people call me retired. In this sport, if you don't refute it, and you don't go back and defend it, or you correct people, then people run with it. So I found out a long
time ago that everybody knows everything, just let them know it. So I never retired from MMA. I never closed that chapter. It's actually quite the opposite. You may even see me fight MMA this year. You may see me wrestle twice, fight MMA and box. I feel like I'm getting to the part where my body being used as a way to generate wealth is coming to an end. I'm getting closer and closer and closer to that moment.
"I feel like the more I can stay in shape, the more I can just keep training, the better I'm going to be. We all know me with consistency. When I had that title run, I fought four world title fights in one year. I feel like knowing yourself is the most important part. I know when I've got something ahead of me, I've got a date, I've got an opportunity, I know that my body is going to be disciplined, it's going to be more focused, less distractions are going to come in. It's just something about being in a camp. That daily regimen is just a discipline I need in life. So I'm just staying in camp, whatever that is, whatever combat it is. I'm thankfully blessed to be versed in many, many different forms of combat. I'm really open to doing any and all, minus bare knuckle, and that leaves me with a lot of things to do."
Woodley meets Joaquin Buckley at RAF 12 on Saturday in Cleveland. He then takes on former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev and RAF Moscow on Sept. 5. While many view Chimaev as the tougher test for his grappling prowess, Woodley explains why he's taking Buckley just as seriously.
"You've got to train for both at one time," Woodley said. "People looking at wrestling – it's not fighting. If you're fighting somebody and you've got two matchups scheduled to fight another guy after that, well, that's like you assuming that you're going to win that fight, and you're looking past the first person. In wrestling, we wrestle three times a day. You think that I'm in the Big 12 Championship wrestling and getting prepared for Oklahoma State, but I'm still not training that week for the guy from Iowa or Lehigh or Minnesota or somewhere else that I'm going to see the next week in NCAA? We may wrestle two or three times a day, four times a weekend, five times a weekend if you go to the constellation, and we wrestle every single week. This is normal. So fans are overlooking Buckley because he doesn't have the credentials as Chimaev, and also the big match in Russia. Going to Russia to wrestle Chimaev is going to get more headlines. But I feel like the style of wrestling is going to be strong, aggressive, pressure, so I'm kind of getting ready for a similar genre of wrestling. But Khamzat is just a little bit more skilled.
"And Joaquin Buckley, I feel like I'm going to be wrestling somebody with a little chip on his shoulder. He always was in the gym, my gym in St. Louis, and he wanted to spar with me and jump in on the goals. But at that time, I was just going against 'Wonderboy' (Stephen Thompson) and Darren Till and Robbie Lawler. Those are very, very specific opponents, and I brought in very specific training partners. So when he used to want to spar and jump in there and get a go with me, I had to respectfully decline. And I feel like his intention to spar me wasn't to help me out and give me a push so I can win. It was to measure himself in how he stacked up against me, and I feel like he probably felt a little bit moded – not brushed off, but this is his chance to compete against me. So you've got to actually account that into a game plan. Don't take him lightly, don't look at his resume and see what he hasn't done. Like when somebody wants to get one off on you, they're going to come with a little extra fire, and I feel like that's what it is. He's younger, he's explosive, he's still in the hunt of the UFC roster, and I feel like those things make the fight a little bit more even in what people would look at it as."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Ex-UFC champ Tyron Woodley willing to wrestle for RAF, box, and do MMA
