Of all the fantastic performances that were witnessed at UFC 235 this past weekend, none may have been as impressive as welterweight title challenger, Kamaru Usman’s complete and total shutout of reigning champion Tyron Woodley.
After months of turmoil inside the division from a business and fighter standpoint, things continued to move on which led to this title fight being made with each fighter’s repeated success.
Being fighters who had very similar strengths, it would end up being Usman that would dominate Woodley in every aspect of the fight over the course of five rounds. This being despite Woodley’s pre-fight claims that he would be overall better than his opposition.
“No, I still feel the same way,” Woodley responded when asked about thinking that he’s better than Usman everywhere on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “I still feel the same way. And that wasn’t a knock, it’s just reality. It’s just reality that when it comes to the striking
“And that doesn’t mean I veer away from what I said. I still mean that, and I still think that when I rematch Kamaru Usman, when I get back the Tyron that was out there in the Octagon, I think we’ll see what I’m saying.”
Usman would go on to score a unanimous decision against Woodley as he would outstrike him a crazy 336 to 60 while breaking the UFC record for striking differential in a title fight, as well as the record for most body shots landed in a single UFC fight.
Unfortunately for Woodley who hopes for an instant rematch with Usman, it looks like Colby Covington will be the new champion’s first challenger.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/5/2019