Arman Tsarukyan believed he deserved a title shot if he won against Dan Hooker at UFC Qatar. However, despite emerging victorious, the Armenian fighter was stripped of the opportunity to fight Ilia Topuria. Well, that’s just the way UFC operates, with no promises or a laid-out sequence to count on. But there was one fighter who shifted the matrix in a historic multi-fight deal before it was fashionable.

Tyron Woodley has by far had one of the fiercest welterweight reigns ever. He defended the belt 4 times in a span of 3 years and helped raise the profile of African-American presence in the UFC. But more than that, he was the first fighter to sketch out his roadmap himself.

Tyron Woodley details rare multi-fight contract negotiations

Well, multi-fight deals aren’t actually rare in the UFC. In fact, fighters usually negotiate more than a single bout at once. But Woodley pulled off a negotiation that was both bold and smart. The welterweight went on a call with the UFC matchmakers to hammer out a multi-fight roadmap that included a title shot and a weight-class jump.

Woodley joined MMAFightingonSBN, discussing whether Kamaru Usman is the welterweight GOAT. There, he revealed the details of the contract. “I was the first—maybe the only—fighter to negotiate three fights on one call. I negotiated fighting Kamaru Usman, and then if I beat Usman, I was supposed to go and fight Colby Covington and defend the belt. And if I beat Colby Covington, I was going to be allowed to go up to middleweight and fight for that belt,” shared the 170 lbs menace.

This would have been a historic move for Woodley but for his losing his footing. “At that point in my career, I lost focus. I was focusing too much on the lifestyle—too much on the things that came along with it. Women, partying—not drinking or drugs, but being at the maximum-level parties, being invited everywhere,” Woodley explained.

“I became a socialite, and I feel like that took the place where my focus should have been. So I forfeited some of those opportunities just by losing focus and living a lifestyle that, looking back in hindsight, wasn’t the life God meant for me to live,” he continued.

The wrestling ace’s roadmap began in a disappointing streak, losing to Kamaru Usman via UD. A KO loss against Colby Covington sealed his fate, snatching his opportunity to get a title shot at middleweight. However, if this negotiation had gone the right way, we could only imagine how that would have drastically affected the UFC moving forward.

If clear-cut roadmaps existed like that, we might have even gotten the anticipated Arman Tsarukyan vs Ilia Topuria bout, instead of the disappointing interim title shot at UFC 324. But, as history shows, UFC has often pulled more strings than what surfaces.

Tyron Woodley criticizes UFC’s fighter management

It isn’t often that UFC allows fighters to make their own choices, especially with desired matchups. Woodley has experienced the worst of it, despite being one of the best welterweights of his time. In fact, when Woodley asked for Michael Bisping or Georges St-Pierre, UFC barely nudged, instead pairing Bisping and GSP together.

“I didn’t get those opportunities because of something like, ‘Okay, Michael Bisping, fight Tyron Woodley instead of Georges St-Pierre.’ Of course, he would fight GSP—GSP is a bigger name, a bigger brand. He wasn’t the current champion, but everyone knows what he accomplished. He’s the best welterweight of all time,” Woodley added on the video. “I wanted to fight Georges, and I wanted to fight Bisping. Instead of them fighting me, they fought each other.”

“Certain athletes, they show the UFC, to the fans, that they are marketable. What happens is, the UFC gets behind them. They start to push them,” he began. “I’m fighting like hell. I’m not doing performance-enhancing drugs in my life. … Why would they not want to market me?”

He also mentioned the untapped potential of Demetrious Johnson, criticizing how the UFC doesn’t pay enough heed to the Tasmanian king. “The best pound-for-pound fighter, Demetrious Johnson, African-American male, completely a Tasmanian devil. Why doesn’t he have the big endorsements?” he added.

During their public spat eight years ago, Dana White fired back, saying Woodley never seized the opportunities and presented himself the way a guy like Conor McGregor did. And that was his undoing. White was confident that Woodley had all the attributes to turn things around and shut down any claims of colored athletes being discriminated against in the UFC. Do you think UFC has failed to represent fighters like Woodley as well as it could have?