In the lead-up to his UFC 209 title defense against Stephen Thompson, Tyron Woodley said he was already the greatest welterweight fighter of all-time.
Well, after Saturday's night showdown, Woodley wasn't even close to his own assessment, beating Thompson by majority decision (47-47, 48-47, 48-47) to retain the UFC welterweight title in the main event of UFC 209 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Sporting News scored the fight 48-47 for Thompson. The Ferguson, Mis. native wasn't too sure he did enough to retain the belt.
"I was extremely nervous," Woodley told Joe Rogan in his post-fight interview. "Stephen made it very hard for me to came close. I wish I would have gone in the last round earlier."
The fight was nothing to write home about. Neither Woodley or Thompson were very active in the fight. Thompson controlled the octagon and through the first four rounds was the dominant fighter — Woodley's back was consistently against the cage, not throwing shots and was hesitant to engage Thompson. It wasn't like Thompson did too much. He was controlling the octagon but didn't let his hands go like he claimed he was going to do prior to his UFC 209 bout.
Appearing to be down on the scorecards and needing a finish, Woodley came out more aggressive and tried to finish the fight. In the final minute, he did that, blasting Thompson with a right hand and dropping him to the canvas. Woodley threw ground-and-pound punches but Thompson fought out. Woodley continued the onslaught but Thompson survived.
Woodley runs his record to 17-3-1 while Thompson drops to 13-2-1.
Here was our main card coverage of UFC 209:
12:51: Round 5 to Woodley (10-9, 48-47, Thompson). Where was the aggressive Woodley in the first four rounds? His trainer Duke Roufus kept asking him to be aggressive and finally did after being down two rounds. After rocking and dropping Thompson, Woodley pounced. Shame he didn't do that throughout the fight.
12:44: Round 4 to Thompson (10-9, 39-37, Thompson). It was more of what we saw three of the four rounds Thompson has won. The champion looks confused and reluctant to do too much for one reason or another. Woodley needs a finish to retain his title.
12:36: Round 3 to Woodley (10-9, 29-28, Thompson). Woodley did what we said he should do, use his wrestling. He was able to use it to setup his strikes and helped him get the edge in the round.
12:31: Round 2 to Thompson (10-9, 20-18). I almost fell asleep there. A carbon copy of the same thing as the first round. Woodley is playing right into Thompson's hands. Needs to use his wrestling to set up his strikes and create some offense.
12:26: Round 1 to Thompson (10-9). Not a fan of either strategy in the opening round. Thompson was the more active fighter, but that's not saying much. Neither Thompson nor Woodley did too much. Thompson had Woodley's back against the cage and didn't capitalize. Woodley looked to be measuring Thompson's karate based style and how to attack.
12:08: Time for the main event of UFC 209, in welterweight action, Tyron Woodley defends the UFC welterweight championship against Stephen Thompson. Woodley and Thompson fought at UFC 205 back in November to a draw. Woodley feels if he did what he did in their first fight, he walks out of Las Vegas, the champion. The challenger feels if he lets his hands go and does what he thinks he's capable of doing, he will be the new champion. It should be a great fight.
12:05: David Teymar defeats Lando Vannata by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27). The fight lived up to the hype as we said and then some. That was 15 minutes of exchanging strikes at its finest. The 30-27 scores are ludicrous. Vannata obviously took the second and Teymar won the first and third rounds. All in all, it was an exciting fight and both fighters put themselves on the map with their performances.
11:42: In the co-main event of UFC 209, in lightweight action, David Teyman goes up against Lando Vannata. These are two up-and-coming, exciting strikers. This one should showcase the fireworks.
11:25: Daniel Kelly pulls off the upset to defeat Rashad Evans by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28). The fight could have went either way as it looked like Evans had done enough to pull out the victory in his debut at 185 pounds. Kelly is now 13-1 and is victorious in four consecutive fights. It's unclear on what Evans will do now — that's three consecutive losses, and lost to a guy he would normally beat.
11:08: Coming up next at UFC 209, in middleweight action, former UFC middleweight champion Rashad Evans goes up against Daniel Kelly. Evans is making his debut at middleweight after losing back-to-back fights at 205 pounds. It didn't look like Evans would get cleared to fight again when he wasn't cleared to fight at UFC 205 and UFC 206 due to what ended up being an anomaly on an MRI.
10:55: Cynthia Calvillo def. Amanda Cooper via submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:19 of the first round.
10:45: Coming up next at UFC 209, in women's strawweight action, Amanda Cooper fights Cynthia Calvillo. This fight was moved up to the main card after the interim lightweight title co-main event between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson was called off when Nurmagomedov had to pull out of the fight due to a weight cutting issue. Cooper is 1-1 in the UFC. Calvillo is making her UFC debut.
10:44: Alistair Overeem knocks out Mark Hunt at 1:44 of the third round. Overeem had controlled the first round by being more active and landing the harder shots. Hunt bounced back in the second round, wobbling Overeem on more than one occasion. WIth the fight hanging in the balance, Overeem got Hunt against the cage, landed a sharp left elbow, then a knee which appeared to have Hunt knocked out and added the second one for good measure. A big win for Overeem coming off his heavyweight title loss against Stipe Miocic at UFC 203 in September. He said he isn't done yet.
10:13: To kick off the main card of UFC 209, in heavyweight action, Alistair Overeem (41-15, 1NC) goes up against Mark Hunt (12-10). This could end very quickly so make sure you don't get up. Overeem and Hunt are the two best strikers in the UFC heavyweight division. They have combined for 27 knockouts. It is a battle between former K-1 kickboxing World Grand Prix champions.
9:54: UFC 209 commences from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. In the much-anticipated main event, Tyron Woodley defends his welterweight title in a rematch against Stephen Thompson. In the co-main event, former light heavyweight champion Rahsad Evans moves down to middleweight to fight Daniel Kelly.
Steven Muehlhausen is an MMA and boxing writer and contributor for Sporting News. You can find his podcast, "The Fight Club Chicago," and subscribe on iTunes . You can email him at [email protected] and can find him on Twitter @SMuehlhausenMMA .
