UFC 209 is here and although the UFC failed to give us either of Stockton 209’s finest brothers on the 209 card, it’s still a solid PPV nonetheless, with fights such as Hunt-Overeem, Vannata-Teymur, Evans’ return (nostalgia) and Khabib-Tony amongst others.
The 209 card is headlined by one of the most important rematches in the history of the Welterweight division which coincidentally, is also one of the most exciting clashes of styles between two extremely different fighters.
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In the red corner, we’ve got, in his own words, the most disrespected champion in UFC history- Tyron ‘The Chosen One’ Woodley. In the blue corner, we’ve got an action-figure like Karateka whose post-fight celebrations include flips and jumps that put gymnasts to shame.
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Ever since Woodley won the title off of Robbie Lawler, he has been in the eye of the storm owing to him levying constant accusations on anyone and everyone, calling them a racist.
He took his rants about racism to the next level after his UFC 205 fight against the aforementioned Thompson was declared a draw. Now despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary, let’s give T-Wood the benefit of the doubt here.
Nevertheless, all these unnecessary distractions have got to weigh on the defending champion’s mind. After a long and ugly build-up to their rematch, Tyron faces ‘Wonderboy’ in the 5-round headliner at UFC 209 on the 4th of March. Let’s understand the techniques involved in this matchup of fire and ice-
Wonderboys’ counter-fighting wizardry against Tyron’s (non-striking) striking game:
Tyron Woodley is a powerful fighter who goes against the conventional wisdom of striking, challenging the theories put forth over the years by old-school striking coaches. Now I’m not saying that the champ’s a bad striker, but the striking mechanics that he uses inside the cage are the exact opposite of what a decent striking coach would teach his pupils.
Woodley’s flaws wouldn’t be apparent to the casual observer who hasn’t trained in boxing, Muay Thai or any such striking-based martial art. However, to martial art practitioners, the first thing that stands out about T-Wood’s striking is his flat-footedness and penchant for sprinting toward his opponent.
Now although that has served him well against most foes, in his 205 match-up against Thompson, Woodley kept spamming his right-hand and running into the karateka’s punches. Now mind you, Thompson is not known for carrying power in his hands (more on that later), and Woodley had him hurt, but failed to capitalise, owing to the comical manner in which he’d run into Wonderboy’s fists.
It’s essential to note that one of the reasons T-Wood has been able to cover up these flaws is that the American always has his world-class wrestling to fall back on, against opponents who keep catching him on the way in.
However, against fighters with good takedown defence and decent counter-striking dynamics, the champ is known to falter. Look at Rory Macdonald’s shut-out victory over Woodley for example:
In Wonderboy, you have a much more polished striker than Macdonald and a fighter who has made a career out of countering opponents not only in MMA but also in the kick-boxing ring.
Sensei Tiger Says: Woodley right-hand spam button and duck feet notwithstanding, Wonderboy’s kickboxing experience and spatial awareness make me give Wonderboy the edge in the Striking department.
Tyron Woodley’s monstrous weight cuts, cardio, power and strength differentials:
Woodley is an excellent athlete who cuts a truckload of weight to make the 170-pound limit, but kudos to him for being able to safely replenish and regain most of that weight before stepping into the cage on fight night.
One of the main factors that enable him to cut such a humongous amount of weight is the amount of lean muscle mass Woodley carries which, co incidentally, is also the very factor that has been known to deplete his gas tank, causing him cardio issues in several marquee matchups throughout his career.
However, the extra weight and lean muscle mass whilst depleting his stamina, serves to provide T-Wood with his trademark explosiveness and widely-feared one-punch KO power. In fact, Thompson has, self-admittedly, been packing on the pounds and adding lean muscle mass to his frame, in order to combat the champ’s explosiveness and blitzes.
Woodley’s muscle mass is a double-edged sword, with the extra muscle granting him that extra zing in the power department on one hand and depleting his cardio on the other. On the contrary, when you look at Thompson, the sheer number of rounds that the karateka has put in, at the gym as well as in professional kickboxing and MMA bouts, make him a cardio machine.
The 209 bout gets all the more interesting since Wonderboy seems to be coming in heavier than their first meeting.
Sensei Tiger Says: The Power and Strength edge goes to Woodley and the Cardio edge goes to Wonderboy.
Grappling dynamics:
Stephen Thompson, the same man who got out-grappled for three rounds by Matt Brown, out-wrestled one of the best wrestlers in the division and former Tri-Star training partner Rory Macdonald in a 5-Rounder. Let that sink in!
After training extensively with former UFC Middleweight Champ Chris Weidman, to say that Wonderboy has developed good grappling would be an understatement.
However, in his 205 matchup against Woodley, Wonderboy got taken down after T-Wood managed to parry the karateka’s slapping kick, caught the leg and muscled the lanky WW to the mat. The fight remained on the mat for the rest of the first round, with Woodley busting him open using slick elbows from top position.
This led to Stephen changing up his usual kick-heavy approach, using his hands to fight off the stocky wrestler’s blitzes as well as takedown attempts, not giving him the opportunity to take him down off of a naked kick. For the rest of the fight, Wonderboy used his kicks sparingly and mostly hidden behind punches or feints.
Furthermore, owing to the fear of being taken down, the karateka seemed extremely hesitant in turning over his hips into most of the kicks thrown by him, as a result of which his occasional kicks were nothing more than love taps on ‘The Chosen One’s’ dome and tree-trunk-like torso.
Now, mind you, if this was a pure kick boxing matchup, the most likely scenario would be Thompson lighting up Woodley like a Christmas tree. It’s the grappling threat that helped the champ shut-down Thompson’s vaunted kicking game and going into the rematch, I see Woodley’s TD-threat once again hindering Wonderboy from utilising his vast arsenal of kicks.
Here’s Evolve MMA gym’s video, featuring Tyron Woodley who explains a double-leg takedown technique-
Neither fighter is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu savant, however, by no means does that imply they can’t secure a flash submission after dazing the other with a clean strike. That said, the fight is unlikely to end in a submission (Yes I know Woodley almost had that guillotine in their first fight!).
Sensei Tiger Says: The Wrestling edge undoubtedly goes to Woodley, with their BJJ skills being on a similar level. The overall Grappling edge goes to T-Wood.
Well-Roundedness and X-Factors:
It’s safe to say that both fighters possess extremely well-rounded MMA skill-sets, with Woodley evolving from being a grapple-heavy decision-machine in his Strikeforce days to a decent standup fighter with a lethal right hand; and with Wonderboy maturing into a well-rounded fighter rather than a one-dimensional kickboxer owing to his work with Matt Serra, Ray Longo and Chris Weidman among others.
Both fighters have a great chin and have shown an iron will regardless of whether the fight goes their way or not.
From Wonderboy surviving his previous fight despite being rocked and dropped multiple times by Woodley, and Woodley himself surviving the 3-round shellacking delivered on to him by Macdonald; the two combatants know how to survive through the thick and thin inside the cage.
Now although these two modern day gladiators seem extremely well-matched as far as the intangibles are concerned, one can’t help but question Woodley’s emotional state coming into this matchup, especially considering his recent fallout with UFC President and in T-Wood’s own words, the ‘biggest drama queen’, Dana White.
Tyron has repeatedly stated over the past year that he is anything but emotional and that nothing in this world is capable of fazing him mentally. Nevertheless, facts are facts, and no human is immune to emotions. Here’s Woodley addressing his verbal back-and-forth with the UFC brass:
That said, coming emotionally charged-up into a fight with someone as slippery, accurate and intelligent as Stephen Thompson, is a bad idea nonetheless.
Sensei Tiger Says: With both fighters being just as Well-Rounded as the other, I think Wonderboy has the mental edge going into 209 owing to Woodley being an emotional mess due to his recent...ahem...’Drama-Queen’ controversies.
Pick:
This is the hurt business and no one can be counted out. That said, this matchup goes either of two ways:
#1 Wonderboy avoids the takedown and keeps the fight at long-range whilst he avoids throwing rear-leg head-kicks. The karateka must stick to front leg slap kicks and jabs to keep Woodley at bay, retaining his usual strategy of constant stance switching after every couple of exchanges. Scenario 1 sees Thompson cruising to a Unanimous Decision win.
#2 Woodley manages to catch his opponent with an overhand right and wins by flash-KO. Now I know that the champ would most probably look to take Thompson down right out of the bat, look to maintain top position and work his ground-and-pound from there; but T-Wood’s out for blood and is looking to prove a point by standing with the former kickboxing champion.
Furthermore, the champ seemed to fade in the 5th and final round of their first meeting. That said, the most likely scenario for a Woodley win is a flash KO. Something like this:
Having gone through how the Woodley-Thompson duo stack up against one another going into the rematch, let’s go to Tiger-Style martial arts Guru, Sensei Tiger, for his Predictions (Sensei Tiger is Real Damn It!)-
Sensei Tiger Says: Woodley blitzes Wonderboy, connects with a lightning-fast right-hand and wins via TKO.
Tyron Woodley beats Stephen Thompson via TKO.
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For Indian audience: LIVE Telecast - UFC 209, LIVE and Exclusive on Sunday, 5 March 2017, on Sony ESPN at 8.30 am
