Tyron Woodley is fiercely loyal to the people who have always stood by his side and that includes longtime friend and coach Din Thomas.
In the aftermath of an ill-advised decision to announce that he was retiring from cornering fighters just after he watched Gillian Robertson lose a lopsided decision in the UFC 330 co-main event, Thomas issued an apology for his “despicable” timing but that didn’t stop UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland from calling him a “shit coach” on social media. That prompted a response from Woodley via private message, which Strickland happily posted online as the back-and-forth over Thomas’ actions continued to spiral out of control.
While he never addressed Strickland directly, Woodley admitted that his desire to defend Thomas probably got the better of him but he’ll never apologize going to bat for somebody who has always had his back.
“I talked to Din yesterday. I don’t want to get into that because I feel like I had to catch myself everybody’s free to say what they want,” Woodley told MMA Fighting via Jack Pot City Casino. “That’s the one thing we have in the United States is freedom of speech. We can all deem this that he did this in the wrong time and he took her moment. What moment did she have at that moment? She competed well. She went on a crazy run. She could get back into gym and work on some things. I didn’t think that her losing to Mackenzie was anything to look down upon. That girl is strong, she’s a great striker, she’s a great jiu-jitsu player, I feel like she got in there with her and did her best. I feel like she knows what it’s like to be in there, she can come back and do better. But also so can Mackenzie. That’s the good thing about MMA, you never know.
“If it was on his spirit to say that at that moment in time that he decided to, maybe I wouldn’t have done it, maybe you wouldn’t have done it, but that doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t have done it. Everybody wants to say something because it’s fun to jump on and go with it ‘oh it’s disgraceful.’ Sometimes it’s the people he works with. Some people that are smiling in his face. He’s my guy for real. I had to catch myself because I was going at it with people, I’m like what am I doing Tyron? I can’t be a hypocrite.”
As angry as he was in the moment with so many people attacking Thomas publicly, Woodley realized that the same way he’s defending his coach for speaking his mind so openly after watching one of his fighters suffer a heartbreaking loss, he was firing back at people effectively doing the exact same thing.
“I’m saying he has a freedom to say whatever he wants to say, when he wants to say it,” Woodley said. “I can’t be going at these people. I went straight to the motherf*cker, to his page, I went to him. I don’t have your number so I went straight to you and I’m not going to give him no clout, because he handled it outwardly like somebody of this era, which is the clout era, but privately it was respect at the end of it so I left it there.
“Because I’ve got to allow him also to say what he should be able to say. I can’t monitor his statement, but I stand on what I said and I ride for my dog. That’s my brother. I’ll f*ck somebody up over Din. I’ll say the same shit to your face. That’s how I feel about it.”
Woodley’s devotion to Thomas dates back many years after they first started working together at American Top Team in Florida and maintained that same relationship after the former UFC welterweight champion left that gym and started training elsewhere.
“I feel like he is one of the most beautiful minds in the sport,” Woodley said about Thomas. “I’m not fitting to let anybody talk shit about him. I’ll get your f*cking face, and I’ll say to your face, and if we end up fighting over it, let’s f*cking go.”
Woodley’s primary work with Thomas took place while he was still actively fighting in MMA but his last bout in the sport took place in 2021 before turning his attention towards boxing. Now Woodley is shifting gears again with a pair of matches booked in RAF including a showdown against Joaquin Buckley booked for Saturday and then heading off to Russia to main event a card against former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev.
Of course, Woodley is a two-time All-American wrestler so he’s got plenty of experience in that sport but he also hasn’t forgotten about making his name in MMA.
That’s why Woodley is still planning to fight again — hopefully sooner than later — with a few options available to him now.
“Definitely Scott Coker, I’ve been talking with him,” Woodley revealed. “I talk with Nakisa [Bidarian] as well behind [the scenes]. More as a consultant, I guess you could say, brand building, just what fighters need and like and love. GFL, don’t sleep on GFL. I know they haven’t launched yet but October/November they’re coming forth.
“There’s a lot of good opportunities. A lot of good leagues. You’ll see me fight MMA probably this year.”
Woodley admits the hardest part about returning to MMA isn’t the training or preparation but what it’s going to take to put a team around him again, especially after the tragic loss of his head coach Duke Roufus, who sadly died in 2025.
“Just thinking about Duke Roufus not being in the mix and Din [Thomas] not cornering me,” Woodley said. “It would be more of that than me not going out there and doing it.”
That said at 44 years old, Woodley knows the clock is ticking on how much time is left in his athletic career so he wants to pack in as much as possible before he calls it a day.
That’s why he’s excited to return to his roots in wrestling with RAF and then make a few waves with a comeback in MMA.
“This last run is just reminding you motherf*ckers who I am,” Woodley said. “What bring to the table. What I did. Some people forget. I’ve had a lot of lessons recently and I’ve learned from them all. I’m not just taking these big risks and jumping out there and no one cares if I win or if I lose. I’ve put myself in positions to the best of my abilities each time. I’m as surprised as you guys — I haven’t had a victory in a competition since Darren Till. I’ve trained my ass off every single time [since then]. I was living a little terrible. I was doing little things during my title reign that I can look back and say I’m not proud of and I feel like you’ve got to be real with yourself. It’s not a fake thing, it’s a real thing. You’ve got to pay the piper. If you think you’re a rock star and you’re living crazy, and you think it ain’t going to catch up with you, you’re fooling yourself.
“So for me I know that season is coming to an end. I put the seeds in the ground, the spiritual ones, the ones that’s going to harvest. I feel like this last season is to show people God is real. When they see me competing at my age … when you see me take off my shirt and step on the scale, you’re going to be like ‘this motherf*cker’s been training.’”
