Leave Tyron Woodley alone. Seriously, y'all.



In the aftermath of the UFC's biggest pay-per-view card of the year, UFC 214, Woodley's receiving nothing but heat and scorn for his performance. The fans didn't like it.

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UFC President Dana White didn't like it.

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MMA media members didn't like it.

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To which I ask: ...Why?

Woodley is the most active current UFC champion. Since winning the belt against Robbie Lawler almost exactly one year ago today, July 31, he's fought three times -- a majority draw against Stephen Thompson, a decision victory in a rematch against Thompson, and his latest, a decision victory over Maia at UFC 214.

That means he spends roughly four months (122 days) between title defenses, a point illustrated beautifully by Nick Dwyer.

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This is not the cause of all the hate, of course. The hate comes because Woodley's defenses have been boring. Even Woodley recognizes that fact.

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I'll concede: Neither Woodley's second fight against Thompson nor his scrap versus Maia was "fun" to watch. His UFC 205 performance against Thompson sure as hell was, though. It was Fight of the Night on a stacked card, so get out of here with that nonsense.

His fight before that -- a first-round blitzing of the famously tough-to-finish Robbie Lawler -- was pretty exciting too. Woodley's finishes of Josh Koscheck, Carlos Condit, and Dong Hyun Kim were rather entertaining.

But let's narrow our focus. Specifically, Woodley's last two fights sucked.

Maia is perhaps the greatest Brazilian jiu-jitsu artist in UFC history. He's unquestionably the best welterweight grappler of all time. Twelve of his career victories came by submission. He notched three during his seven-fighting winning streak before facing Woodley.

He is not an entertaining fighter unless he's on the ground, destroying his opponent. Fact. It's tough to comb through Maia's UFC history -- there are 26 fights total -- and find a thrilling, competitive fight. His exciting fights were only exciting because he crushed his opponents in them -- Rick Story, Condit, Neil Magny, Chael Sonnen, etc.

Anybody who avoided the ground game or who handled Maia's talents there -- Anderson Silva, Chris Weidman, Mark Munoz, Rory MacDonald, and now Woodley -- left fans wanting more. Only Nate Marquardt bucks that trend, his victory coming in 21 seconds courtesy of a piston right hand.

That's the game against Maia. You might win, but you will not make it pretty. That Marquardt punch is a clear outlier -- only one man in 32 fights found it.

The same can be said for Thompson. "Wonderboy" became a fan favorite during his run to the title for his electrifying knockouts. He knocked out Jake Ellenberger and Johny Hendricks back-to-back, setting up a No. 1 contender's matchup with MacDonald.

Thompson laid an egg. He won. But it wasn't pretty. It was technical, precise, and masterful. Not fun, though.

Thompson has been defeated twice -- once by Matt Brown in a takedown clinic for "The Immortal" and once by Woodley. Between the Brown fight and Thompson's first fight against Woodley -- a stretch of seven fights -- he was taken down zero times.

When fighters can't take Thompson down, they get knocked out, or they engage in a boring point fight. Fact.

So in reflection, you're all basically upset Woodley didn't knock out both Thompson and Maia or engage them in their specific area of expertise. Why not grapple the best grappler in MMA history? Why not trade on the feet with the most masterful striker in welterweight history?

That's not how it works. Woodley is the champion, and he was intent on keeping it that way.

The simple fact Woodley was able to nullify those aspects of Maia's and Thompson's games is precisely what makes his performances so impressive. Everybody knows what's coming with Maia, yet most can do nothing to stop it.

"[Maia] hit me with a single leg coming up," Dan Miller told us in an exclusive chat prior to UFC 214. "I f*cking worked on that -- I knew about that fight for like 16 weeks, four months. It was too long -- too much preparing, too much training. It was too much where by the end of the training camp I was like, 'When is this fight going to get here?' But I worked on that [defense] 100, maybe 1,000 times. And he still hit me with it. I saw it coming too! He just sat up, and I knew it was coming, but I don't know. (laughs) He was just very good at that. I knew it was happening. I was prepared for it, and it didn't matter."

You can bet your ass Hendricks and Ellenberger were aware of Thompson's tendencies on the feet as well. Knowing and executing are two different beasts, and Woodley successfully executed against two vastly different styles with relative ease.

But hey, he didn't finish them, so he's the worst, right?

That's certainly how we all felt about Georges St-Pierre.

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