Former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley was set to make yet another influencer boxing appearance opposite YouTuber KSI. Woodley, however, recently revealed on The MMA Hour that the stipulations made by KSI and his team were the most disrespectful of his long, storied combat sports career.
“The negotiation of the contract was very disrespectful, and it made me want to hurt him. So I told this to his manager. I was on a call with his manager and I said, ‘Never in my life have I been disrespected like this in a contract.’”
Woodley Details “Disrespect” In KSI Fight Negotiations
Woodley detailed that KSI’s team wanted “every advantage” they could squeeze into the contract. “So every advantage, they wanted.
And this was terms that were added after we had already agreed. So we agreed, I got a contract, and they went, ‘Oh, I’m sorry to do this, but KSI’s trainer wants to add this hydration thing.’ So when I went out to Dubai, I got in his trainer’s face too, I said, ‘I’m going to weigh f***ing 187. Homicide, that’s what I’m going to weigh. I’m not weighing no 185, and your boy is going to get f***** up.’
Nobody will ever talk. Nobody wants to say nothing, because they’re about [online talk]. And I’m really about [real-life actions]. No matter what lessons I’ve taken, no matter what you’ve seen, when I’m on, you know that I’m really a guy that’ll go through your face with a fucking whole hand, elbow, kick, or whatever the hell it takes. So I just got tired of it.”
Woodley also clarified that, in the end, he walked away, largely because he didn’t much feel like the fight in the first place.
“I never wanted the fight. Like, I never begged to fight. KSI asked me to fight. Jake Paul mentioned me fighting him. KSI put out a poll. I didn’t put out a poll. He put out a poll with a million voters and they said he should fight me. Even when Dillon Danis [dropped] out [of the fight], he never called me. Why wasn’t I was the first person they called, right?
And the only problem I’ve got with him, from a standpoint of ‘does this makes sense,’ yes, it makes a lot more sense to go out there and try to smoke somebody who’s a lesser opponent. But when you walk around and try to get everybody to give you the credit as a real fighter, and say you’ll fight anybody anytime, you kind of can miss me with the bulls***.”
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