UFC 209 Picks and Predictions: Stephen Thompson vs. Tyron Woodley 3/4/17

In the main event, welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson meet in a rematch four months after their entertaining majority draw.

“There had to be a second fight”, said Thompson, a five-time world champion kickboxer and longtime instructor at his family’s Upstate Karate Family Martial Arts Studio in Simpsonville. They sure seem to, though, and they’ve been bumped up to co-main event on Saturday’s card after Nurmagomedov was pulled.

FYI, Thompson was never officially diagnosed with a concussion by a doctor and Dana White tells us Woodley’s comments are off base.

A bit of a mix-up happened just as the victor was being proclaimed as ring announcer Bruce Buffer initially proclaimed Mr. Woodley as victor by split decision only to correct himself moments later and made it a win by majority draw.

“Woodley’s advantage is his wrestling, athleticism and hand power”.

“He needs to realize he’s blessed and lucky he’s getting this fight”, said the champion, a 34-year-old former All-America wrestler at Missouri.

Thompson is far from the archetypal fighter too. Woodley’s power forced Thompson to be much more defensive than normal, preventing Thompson from implementing his volume offense.

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Where can I watch Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson, UFC 209 online? While he was knocked down a couple of times in the fourth round, the SC native showed incredible heart not only to stay alive from Woodley’s guillotine choke but also finish the round on top of him. A better relationship than me and Rory (MacDonald) had. I had to see the videos of the matches after the fact, and I wasn’t able to be there as a dad, especially in the sport of wrestling, where I can (help). “He’s a powerful guy”. He’s knocks dudes out, you saw what he did to Robbie and he smoked me in the head in the fourth round. The UFC has subsequently announced that St-Pierre will challenge for the middleweight title, but it is just the larger point Woodley makes. I got the ground game. It was one of the most anticipated fights in recent memory and promised to be one of the highest-level MMA duels we’ve seen in years.

The result is likely to come down to adjustments made in their respective training camps.

The native of Dagestan has built one of MMA’s longest undefeated streaks on the strengths of his dominant grappling skills, and has also finished his past two fights inside the distance including a third-round submission of Michael Johnson as -335 chalk at UFC 205. “It will be round 5 Thompson in round 1 this time”.