The talking is over, the bout agreements are signed. Conor McGregor will have to wait if he wants to go for three UFC belts.
Sense has prevailed in the UFC welterweight division after the promotion announced, in the early hours of this morning, that champion Tyron Woodley would be taking on Stephen Thompson at UFC 209.
The March 4 pay-per-view in Las Vegas will be headlined by a rematch between two 170lb warriors that put on a spectacular fight at UFC 205.
Your #UFC209 main event! @TWooodley & @WonderboyMMA square off AGAIN on Mar. 4th! 🎟 ➡️ 1/20 ➡️ https://t.co/LSopIGxINe pic.twitter.com/fMvSGFknYY
— UFC (@ufc) January 10, 2017
At November’s Madison Square Garden meeting, Thompson rebounded well after being dominated in the first round by ‘The Chosen One’. He looked to have edged rounds two and three but was knocked down twice in the fourth before closing out the fight well.
One judge scored the fight in Woodley’s favour but he was incorrectly declared the winner by Bruce Buffer. The production team had a word in Joe Rogan’s ear and the commentator announced to Woodley and the MSG crowd that the bout had ended in a majority draw.
Since that fight, and despite saying he has ‘unfinished business’ with Thompson, Woodley has angled for fights against a host of UFC stars. He called out Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz while telling McGregor he’d happily fight him in Dublin.
He even went so far as to shake hands with UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping on a 180lb catchweight bout in April of this year.
All that will have to wait as ‘Wonderboy’ gets another run at the champion. It should be a corker.
As for the co main event, it is still looking likely that Khabib Nurmagomedov will fight Tony Ferguson for a UFC interim lightweight belt but Ferguson has yet to sign his bout agreement.
