With Nate Diaz Fight No Longer an Option, Tyron Woodley Elects to Undergo Shoulder Surgery

Since fighting Nate Diaz at UFC 219 is apparently no longer an option, Tyron Woodley is going to make sure he is 100 percent healthy before he makes his next Octagon appearance.

While UFC President Dana White told reporters on Tuesday that Woodley vs. Diaz was never a possibility for the Dec. 30 card in Las Vegas, multiple outlets had confirmed that that the 170-pound title affair was indeed in the works. Meanwhile, Richard Perez, Nate Diaz’s longtime boxing coach, said his fighter would need somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 million to face Woodley. Woodley himself said both fighters had been offered the bout.

Nate Diaz is obviously scared, homie,” Woodley told TMZ Sports. “When someone says ‘Hey I want to get paid $15 million’ to fight a fighter and they’ve never received that, not even to fight Conor McGregor, that’s a nice way of saying ‘No, I don’t want to fight him’. That’s like me saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll fight f–king Stipe Miocic — just pay me $35 million. That’s basically saying no.”

Now, it appears that a women’s featherweight championship clash between Cristiane Justino and Holly Holm will serve as the headliner for UFC 219.

“Unfortunately, it would have been a crazy card Dec. 30 in Las Vegas I believe and it would have been a crazy end of the year,” Woodley said. “Unfortunately, it’s not taking place. I won’t be fighting Nate Diaz. That’s how the cookie crumbles.”

In the meantime, Woodley says he is working on another movie and will continue his role as a studio analyst for Fox Sports 1. While he would’ve been willing to face Diaz with a bum shoulder, that won’t be the case for the welterweight champion’s next potential foe.

“I am gonna go ahead and undergo the surgery on my shoulder. I decided a couple days ago,” Woodley said. “It’s gonna be a bummer, but at the end of the day if nobody want to step up and fight somebody that’s not even 100 percent in their one shoulder, then I might as well get my shoulder to where it should be so I can continue [to defend] my belt with a little less risk.”