Tyron Woodley: Khamzat Chimaev will be 'easy' to beat in RAF compared to Joaquin Buckley

Tyron Woodley feels like a man reborn after returning to the win column for the first time in eight years. Following a win over Joaquin Buckley in his RAF debut in Cleveland this past Saturday, he’s now he’s gunning to take out a fellow former UFC champion.

In only the second match of the night at RAF 12, Woodley, 44, pulled off one of the crazier performances of the evening. The former UFC welterweight champion started his match against Buckley down 8-1 before mounting an epic 14-8 comeback. Next up for Woodley will be an even tougher task: a showdown against the recently dethroned UFC middleweight champ, Khamzat Chimaev. Their match headlines RAF Moscow on Sept. 5.

Woodley, however, expects a significantly easier challenge compared to the one he just faced, he said on Monday’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.”

“I’m going to take out Khamzat. I promise you. Mark my words,” Woodley told Uncrowned. “Many people thought Joaquin Buckley was going to be the easy match; my gut tells me Khamzat is going to be the easy match. Watch this.

“[People said I was going to lose to] Robbie Lawler, the killer, two [time] Fighter of the Year, back-to-back, boogeyman. [People said,] ‘Tyron ain’t fought in 16 months. Darren Till don’t care about his kids — way bigger than Tyron. Punch way harder than Tyron.’ Tyron backs up. Watch what happens. I’m going to beat him like a drum.”

Woodley’s recent rough patch was long and unrelenting, starting after he dropped the title to Kamaru Usman in early 2019. Across MMA and boxing competitions, Woodley lost seven straight bouts until his triumphant return to his combat roots on the wrestling mats.

Now Woodley’s confidence with RAF going forward stems from the work he’s putting in, and from his and Chimaev’s respective backgrounds in the sport.

“Why not be confident when you believe in God and train your butt off?” Woodley said.

“He was the champion in NCAA? He’s an Olympic gold medalist? He’s a phenomenal, exceptional wrestler in MMA. He’s a good wrestler in regular wrestling. We heads up in this match.”

When RAF first arrived on the scene, Woodley wasn’t keen on the idea of getting back into wrestling. Longtime friend and training partner Ben Askren was the first to try and get him back on the mats, Woodley said, prodding at “The Chosen One” before RAF was even officially in existence.

Woodley ultimately resisted for a full year of RAF events until he caved and made his debut. But what really convinced him was seeing Askren give it one more shot despite going through his near-death experience and receiving a double lung transplant.

That, plus finding his love for wrestling for the first time while his son continued his own wrestling journey, was all Woodley needed.

“When I finished wrestling, I finished wrestling. I didn’t watch it, I didn’t coach it, and I didn’t study it,” Woodley said. “It’s such a grueling sport that when I was done with it, I was really done with it.

“But to be honest, when I watched Ben come back after that double lung transplant, and my son being a senior in high school, those are the two things that really made me do it. So I said, you know what? It motivated me to do it, so I went back out there and started training, and I fell in love with the sport. I could never really say I was in love with the sport of wrestling. I just used it to get a college degree and to put my family ahead.

“I thought I loved it until I started this training camp and realized if I loved it the way I feel about it now, I didn’t love it when I thought I did.”