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Tyron Woodley defends his UFC welterweight title against Stephen Thompson for the second time this evening at UFC 209.



After their epic battle last December at the UFC's debut event at Madison Square Garden, a lot of the buildup has focused on Thompson and the adaptations he will be making from their first fight. With Thompson stating multiple times he's going to come into the Octagon heavier and bigger than he was last time, not everybody is subscribing to the fact this will be work out in his favor.



Thompson could be making a mistake

One of those people is American Top Team coach, Din Thomas who will once again this evening be the main man in Woodley's corner. Thomas believes Thompson coming in bigger could hamper his cardio for a five-round fight and that the challenger won't have been to have closed the skill gap from their first encounter.



"To me, that's not a good idea to come in bigger for a five-round fight," Thomas said. "Because yeah, obviously cardio could be an issue, the weight cutting could be more of an issue if you're are trying to come in bigger.



"Five rounds you want to come in bigger, but it doesn't matter. Tyron is such a different level athlete. You aren't going to make up that gap with five months [considering] how much better and stronger an athlete Tyron is. You know, it that's what he wants to do I'll take it--I'll take it."



Other fighters thanking Woodley for speaking out

In the last few weeks, Woodley has spoken out about the challenges he's faced in regards to racism as a black African-American champion. Thomas gave his own perspective on this and alluded to the fact that he thinks a lot of it is down to a lack of people being able to relate to Woodley.



"There's a lot that and that's a very difficult and tough question, but I'm going to say what I have to say," Thomas said. "A lot of people say it doesn't exist, it doesn't exist and they're bringing up the fact that only Tyron is saying it, which is true, it's true. But, there a list of guys that they all think are happy that called Tyron personally to thank him personally for what he's done.



"We can say what we want, 'there's no racism--there's no racism', but there are some things that go on and when it comes down to it, we identify with people that look like us--that's just the way it is. When Ronda is fighting, girls like Ronda--it brought a whole new audience. That's sexism, but that's no negative connotation to sexism. But, whenever it's racial or black and white it's this racial taboo negative thing.



"So, you know when Conor fights, he's white, he's Irish and it generates [excitement] and the Irish people get excited about that. When it's the Olympics we identify with our country, but when there are no flags we find other ways to identify with people. Not a lot of people can identify with Tyron because he's a black athlete and he's a champion. As much as we want to say we identify with this guy.

We just don't psychologically identify with someone like him like somebody else. Subconsciously we make these decisions about him that he has to overcome and that's really what it is."



Woodley can be the G.O.A.T.

Thomas believes that if Woodley focuses his mind totally on the goal ahead and not external distractions, he will be the greatest fighter of all time. The American Top Team said he was also expecting the best version of Woodley this evening at UFC 209 and that tonight could be the night he puts in his best ever performance in the UFC Octagon.



"Once Tyron puts his mind to something and he doesn't let negativity get in his way, he will be the greatest of all time," Thomas says. "If he can stay focused on his task and not let external negativity disrupt him he will be the greatest of all time.



"Yeah, I think so [he will make a big statement this weekend]. The way he thought Robbie Lawler, just his demeanor, I'm getting that same vibe from him this time. That was obviously his greatest performance--it didn't go long enough for everyone to see him put on a real performance, but if he's that loose, he's flowing and he's happy and joking, man he's a dangerous guy man--everybody is in trouble."