Woodley says he ‘tortured’ Covington in past sparring session

Tyron Woodley lays into Colby Covington on The MMA Hour, claiming that he ‘tortured’ the interim welterweight champ in sparring.

Tyron Woodley has done his best to ignore rising welterweight Coly Covington, but it’s time to put his former American Top Team (ATT) training partner in his place.

Covington, who has called out everyone from Woodley to Star Wars and Marvel fans, has repeatedly claimed to have made ‘T-Wood’ quit in their past sparring session at ATT. But Woodley, who is expected meet Covington in a title unification bout later in the year, says he ‘tortured’ ‘Chaos’ and forced the newly-crowned interim champ to leave training practice early.

Woodley, the official 170 pound champ, laid into Covington on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

“I talked to (coach) Din (Thomas), I said, ‘Din, you know what? I’m going to take him down, and watch how he reacts.’ And I tortured him for the whole practice,” Woodley said, per MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti. “He ran off the mat basically crying, storming off, and I have people who are willing to come forth and testify to the training camp. Tell me one person that’s going to testify that Colby whooped my ass in practice. Tell me one person that’s going to lie under oath and let God above hear them say he beat me in anything. He ain’t ever beat me at thumb wrestling.

“Not only has he never taken me down, he’s never won a millisecond of a round. I can’t even imagine when he’s won an exchange of combinations. He ran from me the entire training camp. He went home early, saying that his toe was hurting. And when it was time to really wrestle, he had my striking partner … in there with a broken wrist wrestling me, while Colby was sitting in the weight room acting like he didn’t know what was going on.”

Covington is one of the most hated fighters on the UFC roster, and Woodley claims he’s no better in person, calling the 30-year-old a ‘horrible human being’.

“He was brought into training camp to help me train for Rory MacDonald, and I’ve never met a lazier piece of sh*t than Colby Covington, a more horrible human being than Colby Covington,” Woodley said. “When it was time to wrestle, ask him how many takedowns he actually scored on me. Zero. Ask him why he turned blue like a f*cking blueberry when I was choking him out and he refused to tap. So, he is an asshole training partner, he’s a horrible human being, nothing that he says is factual, and I told him. I called him and I said, ‘Hey, I know you feel like you’ve got to do this, this is the path that Conor McGregor made and you think this is what you’ve got to do, but you’re really making yourself look bad.’”

According to Woodley, Covington’s incessant trolling in the media is a way for him to ‘make money’ and put food on the table.

“I said, ‘I gave you your one weekend on FOX when I was on-air and that’s all. So you can say whatever you want, but I’m not going to respond to it.’ He said, ‘Ah man, I’m just trying to make money for both of us, man. You know, we’ll both eat at the end of the day. Light at the tunnel.’ So when somebody’s doing a good [job promoting themselves], like with Conor (McGregor) or Chael (Sonnen), I hate to unveil them. But when you have [an employee] of American Top Team scripting and writing your stuff, and when 99 percent of your social media is my face, you need to check your man visa because you done lost all points.”

Woodley might had let Covington have his fun in the past, but the reigning champ plans to ‘embarrass’ his ex-sparring partner when the two eventually collide for the title.

“So it’s just like, I held onto this for so long and I let him talk, but I’m going to embarrass him in the press conference, I’m going to embarrass him in the fight. I hope he never fights again. And the UFC should be embarrassed for getting behind this. I’m embarrassed.”

Although nothing has been made official, it’s expected that Woodley and Covington will meet in a welterweight title unification bout later in the year, when Woodley has fully recovered from the shoulder injury he sustained in last year’s title defense against Demian Maia.