Tyron Woodley Wants Fight With Rory MacDonald

UFC welterweight contender Rory MacDonald

Woodley on "Aries": this kid's probably going to be one of the best fighters in the game

After knocking out Jay Hieron in impressive form at UFC 156, Tyrone Woodley wants a step up in contention. Actually, it's more like a vault.

As he stated on Sherdog's Beatdown Radio Show, Woodley would like a crack at Rory MacDonald: 

"I want to fight [Rory MacDonald]. If anything happens with Carlos Condit, God forbid, or something happens with that fight, I already told Dana White. Nobody's calling him out for a reason, because he's freaking unreal. But if you wait, you think he's going to stop getting better? In two years, this kid's probably going to be one of the best fighters in the game. I'd rather knock his butt off now like I knocked off [Tarec Saffiedine's] just before he got the Strikeforce gold. Everybody's been Tweeting about [Demian Maia]. I don't mind the fight. If he fights me the way he fought Fitch, then it's not that dangerous of a fight. He just took him down and jumped on his back. I think Demian Maia's tough. He just didn't really impress me very much. I think if you match us up, it's going to be a boring fight and we're both going to get hella flak. I would rather fight [Nick] Diaz, Rory MacDonald, Condit. I would rather fight one of those guys, to be honest. They're going to bring out the fight. They're going to make me fight harder."

MacDonald currently sits at #4 on the UFC's new "official" ranking system, while Woodley is unranked. Woodley's ambition is admirable, but the chances of a match up with "Aries" is unlikely. MacDonald, who has almost become a hybrid of Patrick Bateman and his mentor Georges St. Pierre, is regarded by many as the next big thing. With his victory over B.J Penn and upcoming co-main event with Carlos Condit at UFC 158, Dana White has declared the rising star "in the mix" for a title shot. Woodley on the other hand could be about two or three solid outings away from such regard.

In reality Woodley is probably closer to a bout with Demian Maia, however the chances of that are also slim as well, seeing as the BJJ ace is also ranked highly at #5 and has also been declared in title contention.

If Woodley wants a shot to fight MacDonald, he should hope that he loses in his rematch with Condit, otherwise the young Canadian will continue to fight other contenders such as Maia or perhaps for the championship.

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