Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and challenger Stephen Thompson appeared on ESPN SportsCenter to talk about their upcoming UFC 209 in an interview that failed to go down without controversy.
During the interview when questioned as to why he feels his opponent gets more respect, in bizarre turn Woodley (16-3-1) stated: “people don’t like to hear it but its the culture of our sport we’re dealing with a different set of rules.”
“The UFC and fans in general, we go through niche, we go through genre we like to fight. This is a genre where they want to see a clean cut fighter like this young man to the left, doing a razzle dazzle, super flashy fighting. Before then it was guys fighting to the death. Some people say there is race in sports, the second I say race I’m accused of race bating but I can point clear facts where no other champion has been treated like me.”
The interviewer would proceed to ask the champion if he felt the UFC support Thompson (13-1-1) more because he was white, “The Chosen One” would go onto say “I’m not saying they support him more but he [Thompson] sure has some fans that like to cross the line which is not his fault.”
The full video of the interview can be found above. Do you agree with Woodley? Leave a comment below.
