Woodley wants to move up eventually: Adesanya’s ‘scared’ of power

Anton Tabuena

Tyron Woodley wants to see how good Israel Adesanya really is.

Tyron Woodley recently wanted to face either Leon Edwards or Colby Covington, but the bouts never materialized because of the on-going pandemic. One or both of them could very well be his next opponents still, but if the former welterweight champion would get his wish, he’ll only have a few more bouts at welterweight.

Woodley says his goal is to regain his title and then eventually move up for a super-fight at 185 lbs.

“I’m just getting started. I’m not going to act like I’m going to be here until I’m 45, but I’m not going anywhere for a while. I’ve got a lot of people and mouths to shut up,” Woodley said on a recent Instagram live session. “And then I want to spend some time at middleweight too.

“I’ve got to clean up the (welterweight) division. Three or four fights in the welterweight division, and when I feel like I can comfortably say that I’ve wiped everybody out, then I want to go up there and see what Izzy is about,” he said.

“I’m going straight for the belt (if I move up), whoever its at. I ain’t going up to play games. I’m already a five time world champion.”

Woodley also spoke about the match up, saying that he wants to find out just how good Israel Adesanya is. In his mind, the unbeaten middleweight champion might not be as good as everyone thinks, and believes he stacks up well with the creative striker.

“I don’t think he’s as dope as everybody is saying. I think he’s great, but everyone is making him out like he’s some phenomenon,” he said. “I’ve seen some exposure in the Gastelum fight — somebody I walked through. I’ve seen some exposure in the Yoel Romero fight, he’s scared of guys with power. One thing that Yoel and I have in common — not the same — is power, explosiveness. It didn’t seem like he was trying to deal with that at all.”

Woodley has faced a lot of creative and talented strikers in his illustrious career, but Adesanya is pretty unique in his own right as well. As he alluded to though, there are still a lot of things that have to fall into place before any possible super fight can become a reality.

The 38-year-old lost his belt to Kamaru Usman over a year ago, which ended his welterweight reign of over two years.