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Tyron Woodley engages in war of words with Israel Adesanya, Kamaru Usman and Dan Hooker

April 22, 2020
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

The social media battle between Tyron Woodley and Israel Adesanya continued on Tuesday night and added some new elements.

Earlier this week, Woodley hosted an Instagram Live session and revealed he had his sights set on a future matchup with Adesanya. In addition, the former welterweight champion stated that Adesanya was “scared of guys with power”, referring to the middleweight champion’s recent title defense against Yoel Romero.

After Adesanya responded to the comments on Twitter, Woodley had more to get off his chest Tuesday afternoon — which ended up being the match that lit the proverbial candle for what was to come.

Around 12 hours later, “The Last Stylebender” woke the unforeseen rivalry back up by sending Woodley a warning.

Adesanya’s teammate — and surging UFC lightweight contender — Dan Hooker decided to jump into the conversation. Perhaps, “The Hangman” was looking for some additional context to the beef.

Hooker also quote tweeted a split screen video from a Twitter user that featured Woodley rapping on one side and former women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm dancing on the other side. The tweet read, “This is exactly what I imagine hell is like.”

The 30-year-old Hooker couldn’t help himself, which got the attention of Woodley.

The laughing emojis were also used by Usman, who responded to Adesanya’s initial tweet in reaction to Woodley’s comments. Usman defeated Woodley via unanimous decision at UFC 235 in March 2019 to capture the 170-pound strap.

The former champion, who has been eyeing a rematch with Usman, jumped into the mix to add another layer to this already developing story.

Woodley, who was scheduled to face Leon Edwards in the main event of last month’s UFC London event before it was postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, hopes to get back to the welterweight title in 2020. As of now, Woodley does not have a date or an opponent to take that next step, although he is willing to fight at UFC 249 May 9.

UFC 249 is still a couple of weeks away and, especially in these uncertain times, anything can happen between now and then. It would seem highly unlikely that a fight between Woodley and Adesanya would happen anytime soon, but it doesn’t hurt to continue to plant the seeds — which Woodley did to cap off his Tuesday night.

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