THROWBACK: When Kamaru Usman found comfort in a heartwarming gesture from Tyron Woodley’s mother

Five years ago, the capacity crowd at the T-Mobile Arena witnessed UFC’s first African champion as Kamaru Usman defeated Tyron Woodley. The stacked card had all the bells and whistles of a blockbuster, but what caught the fandom’s attention was Woodley’s mother comforting an emotional Usman after grabbing her son’s belt.

It was one of the most moving moments the sport has ever seen, a moment that could make statues weep. After his dominant win, Usman couldn’t contain his pent-up emotions on the way back to his dressing room when he saw Woodley’s mother backstage. Usman cried on her shoulder as Mama Woodley comforted him with strong words and patted him on the back –

“It’s your time. Be encouraged, do you hear me? Because they come for you and you bring it to them.”

While Usman lost his title to Leon Edwards following the Brit’s devastating KO in 2022 at UFC 278, Deborah Woodley’s words touched him deeply as he faced all the challenges.

In fact, he held on and defended the welterweight title for a record 1,267 days from 2019 to 2022, sweeping away the opposition with an iron fist and becoming one of the sport’s most dominant champions, a pound-for-pound great for all time. come.

As for Woodley, his stakes got even lower after he suffered three more losses to Gilbert Burns, Colby Covington and the last one to Vicente Luque before parting ways with the UFC.

The bleak demise of Tyron ‘The Chosen One’ Woodley

Tyron Woodley, a fighter once on his way to UFC greatness, met his match when he faced Kamaru Usman. Since that fight, his career has declined sharply. He had it all: power, speed and cardio, but somewhere in between he lacked the technical know-how to counter Usman’s relentless wrestling.

On his way to becoming a champion, Woodley defeated some of the sport’s biggest names including Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, Robbie Lawler, Carlos Condit etc. But he was met with stiff resistance when he took on ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’.

As for the fight, it was the Nigerian’s complete domination that took the champion back to school and imposed his will on Woodley for the entire five rounds.

Discouraged by the loss, Woodley was never able to climb back up, suffering back-to-back losses. Later, after years, he got into a money fight with YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul. As the fandom anticipated a brutal defeat from the former UFC champion, the young boxer extinguished his fuse with a devastating KO, taking the last of his career.