The final two fights of the UFC’s Saturday night event featured two legends on the downswing. In the co-main, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone – one of the most beloved action fighters of his era, and one of the greatest UFC competitors to never win a title – battled Niko Price, another exciting lightweight with over 30 fewer pro fights.
In the main event, it was Tyron Woodley, just over a year removed from one of the longest welterweight championship runs in UFC history, facing one of MMA’s most disgusting cretins, elite pressure wrestler and open racist Colby Covington.
Neither came out on top. That was to be expected. But the two fights told different stories. In the first bout, Donald Cerrone, as we have come to rely upon, gave the fans one of the night’s most gripping fights. At 37 years old and 53 pro fights – he’s one of the last WEC originals still fighting in the UFC – it was obvious Cerrone is no longer the same fighter he used to be. His reflexes were slowed. He had trouble matching Price’s pace. But Cerrone kept battling. This is a man who always just seemed born to fight. He fought back to win the third round, and thanks to an eye-poke point deduction, walked away with a draw that snapped a four-fight losing streak.
Donald Cerrone looks clearly physically diminished after so many wars in the cage, but his heart and mind are still in the game. You can’t say the same about Woodley, whose double-digit round losing streak continued against Covington on Saturday night. T-Wood allowed Covington to take him down and work his game with little resistance, and was headed for his third straight lopsided unanimous decision loss when referee Dan Miragliotta stopped things in the fifth after Woodley suffered a broken rib.
To Woodley’s credit, the injury turned out to be legitimate. It’s a sad state of affairs that it was even in question. Woodley has appeared completely mentally checked out over his last three fights, defeats that have dropped him from the top of the pound-for-pound rankings into has-been territory.
Bizarrely, however, his situation has appeared to be the inverse of Cerrone’s. Cerrone has been sapped of much of his quickness and reflexes, but he’s still out there scrapping. Meanwhile, Woodley hasn’t appeared to be physically diminished at all. He, at least to the eye, looks to be in as good shape as ever, and when he has thrown strikes, they’ve looked crisp. He just hasn’t shown any will to fight.
You have to wonder if something broke in the Kamaru Usman fight last March, the night where Woodley lost his title. Usman is bigger and stronger than Woodley, and he put the champion in the ceaseless dirty wrestling torture chamber that he’s shoved so many of his opponents into. Usman bullied him against the cage, punched his gut, and stomped on his toes. And somewhere along the way, Woodley seemed to accept his fate. The fire went out of him, and it hasn’t returned – not against Gilbert Burns, and certainly not against Covington.
Days before the Covington fight, Woodley’s longtime coach, Din Thomas – once a top lightweight contender himself – had some interesting things to say about losing the killer instinct late in your career:
Safe to say that Woodley ate no eyeballs on Saturday. And after the fight, UFC president Dana White openly advocated for Woodley to start thinking about retirement. For his part, Woodley disagrees. He’s stated that he intends to continue his career, and furthermore, won’t be making any significant changes to his training.
I don’t understand why in the least. After three straight dominant losses, Woodley has a massive mountain to climb to return to welterweight contention. While it hasn’t really happened yet, at 38 years old, Woodley’s physical gifts are primed to decline. He hasn’t gotten his head in any of his last three fights, all of them main events. Maybe that could be fixed with a change of scenery, a new group of coaches who could restore that fire within, but he’s ruled that out. So why? Why continue fighting? Why continue getting dominated? Why continue taking damage? Why continue damaging your legacy? Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?
The writing is on the wall for Tyron Woodley. You’ve had a great career. But if you’re not willing to change things up, it might as well be time to go.
The Big Fight 