Tyron Woodley will face bitter rival Colby Covington on September 19th, and the former champion is looking to recapture the kind of form that made him the UFC welterweight champion.

https://twitter.com/TWooodley/status/1294482842966265857

Speaking on the Real Quick with Mike Swick Podcast, Woodley said:

‘This is a big fight for me. This is probably the biggest fight in my career to be honest, because it’s a situation that’s like bragging rights. He’s talked all this sh** but in my mind he really knows what time it is. And now that he has talked all that Sh** he’s got to try and live up to it and try to beat me. He’s been calling me out for 3/4 years. So now it’s to the point where it’s personal, and the other fights didn’t really mean as much.’

Tyron Woodley knocked out Robbie Lawler to win the title at UFC 201 back in 2016. His reign included wins over Stephen Thompson, Demian Maia and Darren Till before he lost the belt to current champion, Kamaru Usman at UFC 235. 

After losing to Gilbert Burns in May, Tyron Woodley finds himself on a two-fight skid for the first time in his career.

‘I can never be a great without an adversary like Colby….I’m on the cusp. I’ve got all the things that I need to have and there’s enough people that want me to really hurt him so bad that if I do it? Now i’m a hero. We’re not talking about losing two fights in a row, we’re talking about the kid that finally took care of Colby Covington. Usman didn’t really take care of him. He won, but had he not dropped him twice Usman probably would have lost that fight.’

This will be Covington’s first fight back since breaking his jaw in the loss to Usman. That defeat snapped a 7-fight winning streak for ‘Chaos’ who’s currently 2nd in the rankings. With Woodley ranked 5th, this fight could have interesting implications for the title complexion at 170lbs.

Will Tyron Woodley get in done against his old ATT teammate?