Dana White doesn’t have a track record for hiding his opinions on certain fighters with a few key examples that stick out.
Even legendary figures like Anderson Silva have come under criticism from White in the past after delivering underwhelming performances in big fights.
Throughout his welterweight title run, Tyron Woodley had a rocky relationship with the UFC and it’s president who questioned several of his performances.
‘The Chosen One’ produced three title defenses, and one draw, during his time at the top of the 170-pound division but the fights didn’t always make for great viewing.
Woodley hasn’t competed in MMA since 2021 with his current plans to return to the sport being up in the air after the GFL cancelled their debut events in May.
Tyron Woodley reveals that his 2018 rap song was aimed at Dana White
In 2018, shortly after what would be his last successful title defense against Darren Till, Tyron Woodley branched out into the music industry by releasing his debut rap single.
Featuring TWOOODLEY, Wiz Khalifa, Dj Waffles, T-Dubb-O and Talkofchicao, ‘I’ll Beat Yo A–‘ currently has 12,612 plays on Spotify.
With lyrics such as, “Pull up on that slick tip, n—– run when they see me, now your eyes f—— poppin’ out, you seein’ s— in 3D,” the concept of the track is far from subtle.
However, during a recent appearance on Eric Nicksick’s Verse Us podcast, Woodley revealed that the track was aimed at Dana White after he couldn’t publicly respond to the criticism he was facing at the time.
The UFC president didn’t find out but this was the champion’s way of venting the frustrations that he was feeling whilst being the best fighter in the world at 170-pounds.
After releasing the single, Woodley would lose four fights in a row before departing the promotion in 2021 to enter the boxing world.
“That’s why I made that song ‘I’ll Beat Yo A–‘. If you listen to the lyrics it was for Dana White. I couldn’t say I wanted to beat Dana White’s a–, but I wanted to bad because he made me look stupid. Why are you going to sit here and act like, everybody, [Michael] Bisping and [Kenny] Florian were laughing, I’m like, ‘Ha ha ha, I’ll beat both your a—-.’—not Florian, that’s my dog—but yeah, you made me look stupid and then went I went on air, I couldn’t defend myself. So somebody said, they shut my mic off. In my ear, ‘You can’t reply. You can’t say nothing. You can’t speak on this.’”
Tyron Woodley dates his rift with the UFC back to his welterweight title win in 2016
In the same interview, Tyron Woodley spoke about when the breakdown in relationship between him and the UFC first started to happen.
‘The Chosen One’ won the welterweight title in 2016 when he knocked out his fellow American Top Team teammate Robbie Lawler in the first round at UFC 201.
Woodley claims that heading into that matchup, the UFC were looking to position Lawler for big fights against the likes of Conor McGregor or Georges St-Pierre if he secured the win.
When Woodley wasn’t offered the same opportunities, he started to become frustrated with the people at the top who were calling the shots.
“The rift started before then, but the big rift of the power dispute is I know what he was offered. If this is the NCAA tournament, and he’s the first seed and I beat the first seed, m———– I’m the first seed. So I want everything that he was about to get. I want everything that you talked about. I want every little perk. I want every little extra under the table, and I was relentless on it.”
