Tyron Woodley is currently out of action with an injured hand, but the reigning UFC welterweight champion is hoping to defend his title in the first quarter of 2019 against former teammate turned rival Colby Covington.
“My hand is doing well, healing up nicely,” Woodley said in a recent Instagram video (h/t Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting). “I’m cleared to fight at the top of next year so the UFC is trying to figure out when I’m fighting. We already know who I’m fighting. January, February, March, one of those months. I’m looking at January 26 real closely. It’s kinda close though on my hand so we’ll see. If I can do it, you better believe it’s done. If I can’t do it then we might se me fighting in Vegas on March 2nd or London. I kinda don’t want to fight out of the country but I’m not gonna be trying to pick the location.”
Speaking of Covington, who Woodley used to train with at Coconut Creek’s American Top Team (ATT), ‘T-Wood’ called ‘Chaos’ a ‘waste of sperm’ and claimed to have paid him to ‘beat him up.’
“Colby used to be my warmup guy,” Woodley said. “I hate to break the news to you, but I used to pay him to beat him up. 500 bucks a week plus food plus hotel plus rental car plus gun range plus entertainment plus personal trainers, pad work, massage therapy, yoga. I spoiled the little waste of sperm, now all of a sudden he’s bumping his gums.”
When they do eventually collide, Woodley plans to beat Covington so bad that the interim welterweight champ decides to hang up the gloves and retire.
“He gonna get beat up,” Woodley continued. “He gonna get hurt, he gonna get embarrassed and hopefully retire so we don’t have to hear that terrible trash talk a second longer. It’s just gotten to the point right now where his name just makes my spirit vex.”
UFC 233, which is when Woodley is hoping to return, takes place on January 26 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.