At UFC 228, Tyron Woodley successfully defended his welterweight title, submitting Darren Till with a D’Arce choke after bludgeoning the English challenger. That beatdown came with a cost, though. Woodley broke his hand in the bout, sidelining the champion for 8-12 weeks. Now though, “The Chosen One” is almost fully recovered and targeting an early 2019 return.

Speaking on his Instagram over the weekend (video courtesy of Skip2MyMMA) Woodley said that he is hoping to headline UFC 233 in Anaheim, Calif., assuming his hand will allow. If not, he’s still planning on fighting in the first quarter of next year, wherever the UFC wants him to.

“My hand is doing well, healing up nicely,” Woodley said. “I’m cleared to fight at the top of next year so the UFC is trying to figure out when I’m fighting. We already know who I’m fighting. January, February, March, one of those months. I’m looking at January 26 real closely. It’s kinda close though on my hand so we’ll see. If I can do it, you better believe it’s done. If I can’t do it then we might se me fighting in Vegas on March 2nd or London. I kinda don’t want to fight out of the country but I’m not gonna be trying to pick the location.”

As for his opponent, there’s no question about who will be standing across the octagon from him when Woodley does make his return. Colby Covington was originally supposed to face Woodley at UFC 228 in a title unification bout but a nasal surgery prevented him from accepting the bout. The UFC then stripped him of his interim title and gave the fight to Till. Now, with both men recovered from their surgeries, Woodley is ready to beat up his former training partner, who he clearly doesn’t think much of.

“Colby used to be my warmup guy,” said Woodley. “I hate to break the news to you, but I used to pay him to beat him up. 500 bucks a week plus food plus hotel plus rental car plus gun range plus entertainment plus personal trainers, pad work, massage therapy, yoga. I spoiled the little waste of sperm, now all of a sudden he’s bumping his gums.”

Woodley and Covington have been going back and forth in the media for the last couple of years as Covington has adopted a brash, antagonistic persona to help move him up the rankings. It’s worked, earning Covington an interim title shot against Rafael dos Anjos and soon an actual shot against his American Top Team stablemate, even though Woodley is convinced that most of the other contenders at welterweights are better fighters and tougher matchups for him.

“There’s a lot of good guys in the division,” said Woodley. “Just because I think I’m the best don’t mean that there’s not some other people that can think they’re the best. It’s not to say that those people don’t think that if they get in the octagon with me, they might have the chance to do something nice. It don’t mean it’s gonna happen. The only person I don’t really f*ck with is Colby because he knows he can’t beat me. There’s no chance. He wanted me to fight him injured with a f*cked up hand and I almost took the fight because I still would have beat him.”

But despite his disdain for Covington, Woodley is still keen to fight “Chaos,” if only to shut him up for good.

“He gonna get beat up,” concluded Woodley. “He gonna get hurt, he gonna get embarrassed and hopefully retire so we don’t have to hear that terrible trash talk a second longer. It’s just gotten to the point right now where his name just makes my spirit vex.”

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MUST-READ STORIES

Results. Liddell vs. Ortiz 3 results: Tito Ortiz knocks out Chuck Liddell in first round.

Results. Francis Ngannou, Alistair Overeem steal show with first-round finishes at UFC Beijing.

Please no. Chuck Liddell noncommittal about retirement after Tito Ortiz KO loss: ‘We’ll see’.

Good plan. Tito Ortiz says if he was Chuck Liddell’s manager, he wouldn’t have let Liddell come out of retirement.

Mauro. Mauro Ranallo on MMA announcing future: ‘I hope it’s with Bellator’.

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VIDEO STEW

Liddell-Ortiz Post Show.

Free fight.

Shevchenko and Rose sparring together.

10 best fights that happened outside of the Zuffa umbrella.

Chuck in good spirits.

Tito-Chuck.

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LISTEN UP

Severe MMA. A state of the union, looking at every weight class in the UFC.

Slip ‘n Dip. Interviews with Dewey Cooper and Jose “Shorty” Torres.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

He’s back.

Oscar being Oscar.

Jon Jones (and Rashad).

Tito feeling very vindicated.

Ken knows how hard it can be to walk away.

Chael still looking for that fight, and who can blame him after Saturday?

Conor planning to return next year it seems.

Mickey Gall definitely understands how MMA works.

Fight news coming soon.

Something to be aware of.

Oh good. More comebacks.

This is friggin’ wild.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Kayla Harrison (2-0) vs. Moriel Charneski (3-4); PFL 11, Dec. 31.

Anderson Silva (34-8, 1 NC) vs. Israel Adesanya (15-0); UFC 234, Feb. 10.

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TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2011: Eric Prindle won the Bellator season five heavyweight tournament when Thiago Santos kicked him in the groin at Bellator 59. Also that evening, Eduardo Dantas won a unanimous decision to win the season five bantamweight tournament.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday (for our American readers) and I sincerely hope you didn’t end up watching Chuck-Tito III because wow was it bad. And now we’re gonna have to see Anderson get deaded too.

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow!

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EXIT POLL

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