Top 124 Quotes & Sayings by Tyron Woodley

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American athlete Tyron Woodley.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Tyron Woodley

Tyron Woodley is an American professional mixed martial artist. He is a former UFC Welterweight Champion who defended his title four times. A professional since 2009, Woodley also competed at Strikeforce and was an NCAA Division I collegiate wrestler for the Missouri Tigers, becoming a two-time All-American and Big 12 Conference champion.

I'm gonna fall back, do my thing, but goddamn, I'm going to be a tough dude to deal with.
I don't think I'll get the credit I deserve, but I didn't get into this game for credit. I got into this game to be the greatest welterweight ever. If I keep knocking them out one by one, I think that will happen.
Let's put the cards on the table. Real is real. If I was a different complexion, I think people and fans would treat me a different way. — © Tyron Woodley
Let's put the cards on the table. Real is real. If I was a different complexion, I think people and fans would treat me a different way.
If you are the best in the world, and you believe you should be fighting for a title, I think it is important to get those things out. Because a closed mouth doesn't get fed.
I think the elements to shock the world is either the ability to wrestle and grind somebody out or the ability to knock someone out.
I'm just going to go out there, pop on my leather gloves, and constantly make connections outside the Octagon, and that will make me bigger in the Octagon.
Legacy is really important to me. It's more important than dollars to me. So with that said, I try to find the fights that would solidify my legacy.
What's on my playlist when I'm fighting is not so much hip-hop. Sometimes, it's something more inspirational. I get a chance to think about what I'm fighting for, like, my family. It takes me to that state because a lot of times, it's a spiritual warfare for me.
I don't feel an obligation to go by the rankings - we all know how those rankings are produced anyway. I want to go out there and fight the money fight.
Nick Diaz is in the top five welterweights of all time in my eyes. Georges St-Pierre is the number one welterweight in my eyes.
I'm the person that's been that young, spunky kid that wanted to beat the top guys.
Growing up as a kid, in elementary and middle school, I was always getting in trouble. Always getting suspended. I got suspended for 90 days for fighting beginning my freshman year, so I missed Homecoming, and that's when I turned the page. I went on honor roll and had good grades after that. It was the changing point.
I have the highest takedown defense in the entire welterweight division, maybe the second-highest on the UFC roster. — © Tyron Woodley
I have the highest takedown defense in the entire welterweight division, maybe the second-highest on the UFC roster.
I've always felt like the underdog.
Amanda Nunes - I've been telling people that forever - she could compete with a lot of the male bantamweights in American Top Team.
What got me into MMA first was that I was a wrestler, and I was a gangbanger getting into trouble a lot and getting into fights. I grew up in a family of 15 in a four-bedroom house. It was dysfunctional, so that alone made me want to be an MMA fighter. It's really the only sport where you gotta basically depend on yourself.
I think Nick Diaz is a great fighter.
Goal number one is to be the welterweight champion of the world, and I'm away from my family way too often. This is a sport where we can make cash now.
If I have a chance to make a larger amount of money in a legacy fight against the No. 1 welterweight in history, it makes sense for me to want that fight. You have a lot of pay-per-view money coming to this company. Why shouldn't the champion partake in a piece of that pie?
I don't believe in ring rust. I used to believe in ring rust, but I talked to my buddy Dominic Cruz, who's a bantamweight, and he basically said it's a mindset. What you do in between in your time off determines how you're going to look when you come in there.
A lot of people don't understand my reasoning behind wanting to fight big fights and big names. Knocking off these big names in fights really solidifies me as the best welterweight that's ever done it.
It can be a grind, training and fighting and waiting for your chance. But when that opportunity presents itself, you have to be ready because you never know if or when you'll get another shot.
My nickname, T-Wood, came from football because I was so small, but I used knock people's helmets off. All I wanted to do was hit. I didn't care about interceptions or touchdowns.
My strength is my unpredictablity. I can wrestle, I can strike, I can move fast, and I do a good job of covering up. And because of my experience, I'm able to put myself in good positions in the ring. The guys I fight, they have to be ready for anything.
If you bring in testosterone outside your body, it probably stops producing it because it thinks you're going to get it from the outside.
It's always something; it's never going to be something that's pleasing. People will always find something to say, and once you become comfortable with that, you can walk away and smile.
There's something about somebody who does something special in the UFC that they're allotted certain freedoms and wiggle room around the rules. I'm just not in that category. So if I want to fight Georges St-Pierre or Nick Diaz or Nate Diaz, then it's all the hooplah and all the talk about it.
If I'm straight outta shape for a fight, I might need 12 weeks or more to get in shape.
I've had five submissions in the first round. I have 3, 4, 5 knockouts. I've had decisions. I've had grinding fights.
I guess you could say I fell into it. The main goal was to be successful and to make my family proud. Back then, MMA was just getting started, and there didn't seem to be a ton of rules. It seemed pretty brutal, and I was still pretty focused on wrestling. But I decided to give it a shot.
I love playing Rick Ross' 'Port of Miami' album. Jeezy's 'Thug Motivation 101' is a classic in my opinion, and I still listen to that album to this day. I'm a big fan of OutKast, so pretty much any album they put out is great in my opinion, but I find myself listening to 'Aquemini' a lot. Anything Kendrick Lamar does is great.
My goal is to go out there and dominate. We all know if I'm in a position and I see my opponent hurt by landing good striking, I'm going to try to get him out of there. If I'm in the top position or in the position to finish by submission, I'm going to look for that. I don't feel the need to prove the haters wrong.
I'm just trying to get paid; I'm going to be straight up.
I didn't pick wrestling over football. My coaches picked that for me. I never wanted to wrestle in college. I always wanted to play football. They thought I was too small, but I had a lot of heart.
Nobody should be treated any type of way because of their color, their race, their gender, their socioeconomic status. We're all human.
Fighting is the only sport where fans don't understand this is our living.
Nobody criticizes The Rock. Nobody criticizes Randy Couture when he goes over and did 'Expendables 3' or anybody who's a crossover.
I've really valued each area of MMA. — © Tyron Woodley
I've really valued each area of MMA.
I've physically seen profiling. I've seen me walking up the street with my friends, and the police officers get out of their car and bust the hell out of my friends. And they can't do anything about it, and the cop gets back in his car and drives off.
I just prepare and train to be able to stay on top as long as I can and retire on top.
I think a kid from the inner city, if I had to recruit, is the ideal person for MMA. They'd be less likely to be affected by hard work. They'd be less likely to not appreciate something when someone is helping them out, because they probably don't have a ton of stuff.
Fighting, especially at this level, is about getting through adversity. You position yourself mentally to go out and take on obstacles that stand in your way. In the Octagon and in life, you face tough situations and have every chance to quit, but the more adversity you push through, the more likely you are to be successful.
There's some ignorant people in the world, and if I spend time trying to convince people to think like me, I'll be wasting valuable time I could use to be growing my business, perfecting my craft as a fighter, watching film, studying, or just enjoying time with my family. Or just sleeping.
I know when you do things systematically, non-stop, and repetition, that's how you make things happen in your life. It's the same thing in faith.
When you're working on a Marvel movie, their legal department do not play.
I used to be in a street fight at least twice a week, so locking me in a cage with somebody, with a set of rules and a referee to jump in if something get ugly, and a time limit, like, it don't scare me.
When you're watching people in non-title fights making four times the amount of money that a champion makes, it takes away the flavor of being a champion.
Everybody is going to have their moment. I recognize that when my time comes, it's going to be nobody else's time. Nobody is going to have my moment, and I will be a superstar.
I've had friends who have been beaten up by police officers who put phone books in their T-shirts and then beat them up, then drive off. — © Tyron Woodley
I've had friends who have been beaten up by police officers who put phone books in their T-shirts and then beat them up, then drive off.
When things get you in the corner, and it feels like you can't go on, you can fight back. You're never out of the fight.
Why wouldn't the police officers be on edge? Why wouldn't they be alert? And why wouldn't people in the community trust police officers? Because they are consistently harassing them, and they have experience with police officers doing awful things.
I've beaten Jordan Mein. I've beaten Tarec Saffiedine. Some people might have said I beat Stephen Thompson. I beat Robbie Lawler. These are the greatest strikers in our sport, but I'm the only one out of all those guys that outstruck the best strikers, and I still don't get the credit for being the best striker in our division.
My real fear with fighting is just not letting it go out there and hang out. I don't fear other guys. I'm just scared I'm not going to go out there and give everything I have. Like I'm only going to give a fraction of the things we trained and worked on.
When I was in college, I was a landscaper. Other than that, coaching has been my life and my job. A lot of people like coaching college, but I would never do it again. There are too many NCAA bylaws, rules and politics.
Some people say things they think you want to hear, and some people say the things they are actually thinking.
USADA tested me, and I came back positive for hard work and beast-like characteristics.
I don't want to be the dude that you just think about with a crazy suit, talking crap, fighting in these super fights and driving a Rolls-Royce.
I owe my family first, but I also have others around me that I have to perform for.
People don't realize how sick Amanda Nunes is. She beats some of the UFC bantamweight males in the gym.
To be just straight up honest, Conor McGregor is a guy that fought at 145 - ever in his life. I haven't weighed 145 since my sophomore year of high school.
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