The American MMA fighter Tyrone Woodley, until 2012, collaborated with the Strikeforce promotion, and since 2013 began to act under the auspices of the UFC organization. In 2016, Woodley became the UFC welterweight champion. However, at the moment he has already lost this title - the reason for this was the defeat from Kamaru Usman in March 2019.
Children and teenagers
The date of birth of the famous fighter Tyrone Woodley is April 7, 1982. He spent all his childhood in the American town of Ferguson. Tyrone grew up in a large family (in addition to him, she had twelve more children). His father was called Sylvester, and his mother was Deborah. When Tyrone was ten years old, his father left the family, and since then only his mother was engaged in the education of Tyrone.
Back in school, Tyrone was intensely involved in sports - American football and wrestling. In 2000, he won gold at the Missouri wrestling championship in his age category.
In the same 2000, the young man graduated from high school and became a student at the University of Missouri. During his studies at the university, Tyrone continued his studies in wrestling, for some time he was even the captain of the student team in this sport.
In 2005, Woodley graduated from the university with a degree in Agricultural Economics.
First steps in MMA
Once the sports club in which Tyrone trained, organized an amateur MMA tournament for its members. Tyrone decided to participate in it. His first fight lasted only twenty seconds - this is how much time Woodley took to send his opponent to the knockout. Then he spent six more amateur fights and was able to achieve an early victory in all.
There is also evidence that at that time Tyrone tried to get into the television show "The Ultimate Fighter", but at the last stage of the selection he was eliminated.
Tyrone's first professional MMA duel took place on February 7, 2009, Steve Schneider became his opponent. This fight lasted less than a minute - Woodley won by TKO. The next battle - against Jeff Carstens - took place in late April of the same 2009. Here Tyrone also won pretty quickly, having a spectacular asphyxiation.
Performances under the auspices of Strikeforce
Then the Strikeforce organization drew attention to the talented fighter. On June 6, 2009, he first took part in the show of this promotion and entered the ring against Salvador Woods. The fight lasted one round, Woodley defeated Woods by knockout.
In September 2009, Tyrone's fight with Zach Light was organized at the next Strikeforce Challengers show. And here Tyrone was again stronger.
In general, from the summer of 2009 to the summer of 2012, Tyrone held eight fights under the auspices of Strikeforce, without suffering a single defeat. Moreover, four of these eight fights ended ahead of schedule.
With his brilliant performances, Tyrone won the right to compete for the title of the strongest Strikeforce fighter in the welterweight division. Woodley's opponent in this fight, held on July 14, 2012, was Nate Marquardt. And it was here that Tyrone suffered his first defeat. In the fourth five-minute, Nate carried out a series of crushing blows, after which Woodley could not recover.
Career at UFC
After the fact that the Strikeforce organization ceased to exist, many athletes who performed under its auspices received contracts with the UFC. It turned out that Tyrone Woodley was among them. Of the first seven fights in the UFC, Tyrone won five (we are talking about fights with Jay Chiron, Josh Koschek, Carlos Condit, Kim Don Hyun and Calvin Gastelum) and only lost in two.
Ultimately, this allowed him to enter the championship match with American Robert Lawler. This fight was held on July 30, 2016. It lasted only 2 minutes and 12 seconds, and then was stopped, as Lawler was knocked out. So Woodley became the UFC welterweight champion (that is, from 70 to 77 kilograms) in the weight category.
Already in the fall of 2016, he had to defend this title for the first time. At UFC 205, Stephen Randall Thompson was challenged against him. The fight was very interesting, and lasted all five rounds. And when they came to an end, the three judges made their own (rather rare for this sport) decision: no one won, no one won.
On March 4, 2017, at UFC 209, Thompson and Woodley met again in the Octagon. And this time, Woodley was still stronger. He won by a separate decision of the judges and remained with the title.
Then Woodley was able to successfully defend his champion title twice more - in fights against the Brazilian Demian Maya (the battle took place on July 29, 2017) and the Englishman Darren Till (the battle took place on September 8, 2018).
The next contender for the title, which belonged to Woodley, was a fighter of Nigerian descent Kamaru Usman. The duel between him and Tyrone, held on March 2, 2019, turned out to be very spectacular. At the same time, we must admit that almost all five rounds had the advantage of Kamaru. He pressed Woodley several times to the cage and transferred him to the stalls. At the end of five rounds, Kamaru was declared the winner, he became the new champion.
Subsequently, Woodley said in an interview that he would like to go out again to fight Usman in the octagon. But it’s still not clear whether this revenge fight will take place or not.
