Tyron Woodley suffered his second unanimous decision loss at the hands of Gilbert Burns. It seems like a new generation of fighters is taking over. And with his age against him, should the “Chosen One” hang up his gloves?
Almost 15 months ago, Woodley dropped his welterweight strap to Kamaru Usman. Usman manhandled Woodley in their fight. While some believe that it simply wasn’t Woodley’s night, others claimed that Woodley’s time is over.
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Following his loss to Usman, the former champion found it difficult to cope up with reality. He suffered from bouts of depression and failed to keep up with his training. It took him more than a year to find himself and get back into the cage.
Is Tyron Woodley still motivated?
During the build-up of Gilbert Burns vs Tyron Woodley, the American reiterated that he is extremely motivated to get the belt back. Yet the fight itself showed us a completely different fighter.
The 38-year-old failed to let his hands go. Gilbert pushed him against the cage, landed some brutal shots which knocked him down. Burns almost had him in a submission as well. With two lackluster performances, critics were quick to jump in and say that Woodley needs to retire.
Is it the end of Woodley?
Physically, Woodley looked great. But the fight game isn’t all physical, is it? Even though Woodley claimed that he was motivated and “present” in the fight, it seemed like he just didn’t want to be there.
Yes, he didn’t freeze up as he did in the Usman fight. But neither did he let his hands go when he should have. He was getting dominated everywhere. However, It can also be that the competition caught up to him.
As far as retirement is concerned, it’s too soon to judge. One or two more fights should decide where Woodley’s head is at. After all, we have seen Francis Ngannou make an amazing comeback after getting schooled by Stipe Miocic, and a dull performance against Derrick Lewis.
Apart from that, let’s not take away any credit from Gilbert. He showed up in peak form and put it on Woodley. The Brazilian is now on a 6 fight win streak. And will probably fight for the title next.
