At UFC 205, Conor McGregor finished Eddie Alvarez via a second round TKO to become both the UFC Featherweight Champion and the UFC Lightweight Champion. During his post-fight celebration, McGregor was motioning for two belts and after a little bit of maneuvering by UFC brass, got them for the post-fight madness.
However, while the double champion was definitely holding a pair of belts in the air, one of them belonged to current UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley, who gave McGregor a second belt to hold after the fight.
"I'm a good businessman," Woodley said on The MMA Hour. "I love (UFC VP of Athlete Development) Reed Harris. Reed Harris is the man. He's always shot me straight, good or bad, and I love Reed Harris. Reed is the one who that, his hands grabbed the belt, took it to the cage. I love Reed Harris. I was a little frustrated that at that current moment that they needed it, because I needed to take my pictures, the pictures they take behind the stage if you win. I wasn't able to do those pictures because they wanted me to take it without the belt. I didn't get a chance to take those pictures because that moment was going on."
The act of generosity by Woodley to the UFC didn’t go unnoticed by the promotion, who appreciated the gesture by the welterweight champion.
"They told me how great of an individual I was that I would be willing to do something like that," he said. "Especially after all the wolf tickets that were sold by Conor McGregor, that I would be willing to ever do something like that, and that it just shows the kind of man and character I am. But I've been making some calls, and hopefully they financially express their gratitude as well."
Despite the kindness that Woodley showed McGregor by loaning him the belt, Woodley would still entertain the thought of fighting the two division champion.
"The guy's a featherweight, lightweight. How many of you guys actually want to see me fight him? If you guys want to see me fight him, let's make it happen. If me beating him is going to be, 'oh, my god he's the welterweight and he should be able to beat him,' it's going to make me look bad. I really don't have a beef with him. I actually don't know him as a person, but I respect him as a businessman. I respect what he's done for the sport. He's a big part of why the event was so big. You can never take that away from him. He's a two-division champion -- Nobody's ever done it. He's created history, and those are things that are important to him and his legacy. They're not as important to me, so I can't knock him for that. I want to do the best thing for myself and my career, I want to be a legend in this game. I want to be remembered as the best welterweight to ever put their two ashy feet on the Octagon canvas. That's what I want to be remembered as. It's not so much about having a card and screaming my name on there, wearing these python shoes...that's not what's important to me. That's his goal and it's important to him, and he's doing, and I'm doing what I do. If the powers that be at the UFC, and the fans, if they want to see us scrap? I mean, just send me a bout agreement, I'm in. I mean, if he wants the fight they're going to make the fight happen. He's at the point right now where they're going to do what he wants to do. I'm not holding out and waiting for a fight with him." said Woodley.
Woodley does not have his next title defense lined up yet, but he is not expected to defend the championship again until sometime in 2017.
