Either Tyron Woodley is in on the act of trolling the entire combat sports world or Floyd Mayweather is actually entertaining the idea of a UFC debut.
Most had written off Mayweather’s mixed martial arts teases as publicity stunts, a means for the 50-0 boxing great to keep his name in the headlines and make some money, which he loves so much that he turned it into a sobriquet.
In the world of professional fighting, all is seldom what it seems and despite the apparent talks between Mayweather and UFC President Dana White and the ongoing war of words between ‘Money’ and UFC superstar Conor McGregor, few fans took it seriously.
Why would a 41-year-old who has mastered his discipline, cemented his status as one of the greatest fighters of all time and earned more money than he ever could have dreamed of put it all on the line in an Octagon with an entirely different rule set?
Mayweather would undeniably possess the best boxing in the UFC but he’s not exactly known to be a knockout artist so most fighters in the UFC’s lightweight division would be quite happy to take one or two shots in order to get in on a body lock and drag the wealthy fish out of water and into a pool of elbow-induced blood.
Now whether he ever decides to take the ill-advised leap into the world of MMA, where his forearms would be introduced to the agonising thud of shinbone by even the most amateur of kickboxers, remains to be seen but one high-profile fighter is already in talks to train Mayweather.
UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley has revealed that he’s going to put ‘Money’ through his paces when they reconvene in Las Vegas.
“I saw him at the Jordan party during (NBA) All-Star weekend,” Woodley told TMZ. “We started chatting about training MMA and we decided let’s connect, let’s hook up in Vegas and do some training and get him ready for MMA.”
Oddsmakers have already set up hypothetical lines in which Mayweather would be underdog for almost every single MMA match-up, with former WWE superstar CM Punk even considered favourite over Mayweather in the Octagon.
But 170lbs king Woodley has faith in Mayweather’s ability to keep a fight on the feet and punish opponents with his hands.
“Floyd Mayweather’s one of the best strikers of all time,” Woodley added. “How many guys in the UFC that can’t wrestle and can’t grapple that consider themselves a stand-up fighter, but they have to stand across from one of the greatest strikers ever, they are gonna be in a world of smoke.”
