Morning Report: Tyron Woodley calls Stephen Thompson ‘entitled,’ threatens to give next title shot to Demian Maia

Here we go again.

On Nov. 12 at UFC 205, UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley defended his belt against the No. 1 contender Stephen Thompson. It was a back and forth affair with Woodley having the most dominant moments, and nearly finishing “Wonderboy” on a couple of occasions, but with Thompson edging ahead in the closer rounds. The end result of the fight was a majority draw with Woodley retaining his belt, and UFC President Dana White saying a rematch seemed likely.

Yet negotiations for the match up are still ongoing. Ariel Helwani reported that the UFC has always wanted to set their rematch for UFC 209 but the hang up seems to be with Woodley. Since 205, Woodley has been actively campaigning for other fights besides a Thompson rematch, seeking out fights with former Strikeforce champion Nick Diaz, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, and most recently, UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping. In an attempt to upend these efforts by Woodley, Thompson recently called the champion out on Twitter, revealing that the UFC offered him a fight contract with Woodley on Dec. 20 and that he signed his contract and was only waiting on Woodley to make the fight official by signing his own.

Woodley was quick to respond, attempting to catch Thompson unaware but, unlike in their title fight, failing to land the big punch(line).

For the uninitiated, boffa, or BOFA, is a joke wherein one party says BOFA and when the other party responds quizzically, the first party replies with “DEEZ NUTS!” It’s a sophomoric joke that’s been around for many years but has experienced a renaissance of late.

After Thompson dodged the mockery, the two engaged in a heated exchange. Thompson maintained that since their first fight was a draw, the two needed to run it back and alluded to Woodley being “scared” to fight him a second time. Woodley was adamant that he won their first encounter, that Thompson had 25 minutes to beat him and couldn’t do it, and that Thompson was “lucky” to get a draw, decrying the the former challenger for acting “entitled.”

It’s the same argument these two have been having for almost six months now, with Thompson trying to get Woodley to accept a fight with him on the basis of being the No. 1-ranked welterweight but Woodley wanting to fight bigger names in more marketable fights.

Or maybe not. After Thompson attempted a “mic drop” style walk off, declaring “I’ll see you at UFC 209,” Woodley responded by calling him delusional and threatening to give the other welterweight contender, Demian Maia, the next title shot.

Maia is a former middleweight title challenger who cemented his status as next in line by dismantling former interim champion Carlos Condit in the main event of UFC on Fox 21. Maia is on a six-fight win streak in the division and has made it clear he will sit out until he gets his chance to fight for the belt. He was supposed to face the winner of the Woodley-Thompson, but the draw threw that plan into disarray.

Though Maia is clearly deserving of a title shot, he doesn’t figure to be the kind of pay-per-view draw that Woodley appears to be seeking for his next fight. However, he would offer Woodley the chance to test himself against one of the best grapplers in the history of ever which might be more appealing than a rematch with an opponent he seems to believe has no chance to beat him.

UFC 209 is only eight weeks away, taking place on March 4th in Las Vegas, Nev. so however this shakes out, the UFC is sure to announce something official soon or be forced to push the planned title defense back to another event.

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MUST-READ STORIES

Still got it. UFC 207 brought in 1.1 million PPV buys, according to early estimates.

Fair is fair. Chael Sonnen says out-of-competition drug testing is “just fair.”

Pressure. Mike Dolce says Ronda Rousey “puts more pressure on herself than anyone.”

Money. Cody Garbrandt says T.J. Dillashaw doesn’t sell PPVs so a fight doesn’t make sense.

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MEDIA STEW

This might break a lot of hearts.

Free Fight.

Laila Ali talks Ronda.

Jonny Bones with sage advice.

And another.

Chael kiboshing Ronda’s Hollywood future.

Bermudez training Vlog.

Genuinely excited for this promotion in 2017.

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LISTEN UP

The MMA Bunker

Phone Booth Fighting

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TWEETS

Hustle, hustle, hustle hard.

Excellent outro.

I for one think the Jacare-Boetsch fight is completely reasonable, if underwhelming.

The champ out there helping the up and comers.

And making friends.

Relentless.

Everyone was picking fights this weekend.

So this happened.

And then this.

Hero.

Shoot your shot.

The language here is NSFW.

Oh god no.

I don’t even remember what he said but I’m sure it wasn’t good.

2 on 1 is pretty tough to overcome.

Lol.

Tony or Aldo, Tony or Aldo, Tony or Aldo...

Frank’s daughter is a badass.

The Warmaster setting out on his own.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Marloes Coenen (23-7) vs. Julia Budd (9-2); Bellator 174, March 3.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Tyron Woodley is 100% not afraid of Stephen Thompson but it still kind of baffles me that he is so averse to fighting Wonderboy. I mean, shoot your shot or whatever but he’s a smart man and he knows he’s not getting GSP or Nick Diaz or Bisping or Conor (at least not until the end of the year). Maybe it’s just negotiations on his part but the constant dismissal of Wonderboy seems like bad branding to me. That being said, I’m certainly not an expert on that type of thing. Maybe it is smart and I just don’t see it. Entirely possible.

It’s the first UFC fight week of the new year, folks. BJ Penn is back and for the next few days the old hats can relish their nostalgia bones and hope for a resurgent Penn while the realists can laugh at their foolishness. Take it easy and see y’all tomorrow.

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If you find something you'd like to see in the Morning Report, just hit me up on Twitter @JedKMeshew and let me know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram and add us on Snapchat at MMA-Fighting because we post dope things and you should enjoy them.