Tyron Woodley (left)(image via Showtime Sports/Twitter)

By FCF Staff

For some time, Tyron Woodley was regarded as one of the greatest welterweights of all time in MMA. But, it sounds like Chris Weidman believes Woodley’s knockout loss to Jake Paul was a big hit to the former UFC champ’s legacy.

Woodley agreed to step up and face Paul on short notice for another boxing match on December 18th. In their first encounter, this past August, Paul won the fight via split decision. This time around, however, the YouTube star viciously knocked Woodley out in round six.

Since then, there’s been extensive discussion about how the brutal defeat will impact Woodley’s legact. During an episode of the Won’t Back Down podcast, Weidman opined the loss will significantly impact how people remember Woodley’s fighting career (quote via MMA Junkie).

“Damn, Tyron Woodley is going to have to live with that,” Weidman said. “They’re just comparing him to Ben Askren now. He’s not going to get another chance – like, that’s it. I don’t know who he’s going to fight that would give him the draw and excitement that he would need to elevate him back to where he would feel like people gather behind him and think he’s legit again. I think his legacy has definitely been tarnished, which sucks to say.”

Woodley, who is now 39, closed out his memorable UFC run with four straight defeats. The accomplished wrestler won the UFC’s welterweight title in July, 2016, and retained the belt in four straight bouts, before losing the title to Kamaru Usman in 2019.