UFC 209, which will take place on March 4 in Las Vegas, has added a big title fight to its card.
UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley (16-3-1) took to his own podcast, titled “The Morning Wood Show”, to announce that he will be facing No. 1-ranked UFC welterweight contender Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson (13-1-1) in a rematch of their title bout at UFC 205.
The first fight between the two was the co-main event on the card headlined by Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez and ended in a majority draw. Many felt that a draw was a fair outcome, but there were also many (myself included) that scored the fight in favor of Woodley.
The champion had big rounds in rounds one and four, where Thompson was dropped multiple times and nearly submitted by a Woodley guillotine. But two of the judges gave rounds two, three, and five to the challenger, Thompson, which were all close rounds. Round four was scored 10-8 for Woodley on those same two scorecards, making the scores come out as 47-47. The third and final judge scored the fight for Woodley, 48-47.
Nonetheless, the fight was a barnburner and won Fight of the Night honors on one of the best cards of 2016, UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden. Ever since, the trash talk between the two has been ongoing on social media, laying the groundwork for a rematch. It is unclear as to who will emerge as the favorite in this fight, but it is certain to be entertaining once again.
In addition to this welterweight title fight, a heavyweight bout between Mark Hunt and Alistair Overeem will take place on the card. Also, the UFC is close to finalizing a fight to pit Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson against one another for the interim UFC lightweight title on this same card, per The Daily Star.
