With Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) staging interim title fights any chance it gets, some in the mixed martial arts (MMA) community have stated that the value of being a UFC titleholder has been watered down over the last few years.

If you ask Dana White, though, that is further from the truth. If anything, he says it gives other fighters the chance to become champion — albeit with an interim tag — and to earn more money, side opportunities, and pay-per-view (PPV) points just as the true champion does.

It’s something Tyron Woodley can attest to, as he says he didn’t realize just how much is tied into being a UFC champion until he lost the belt.

“Sometimes we can try and act like we got it all made and everything’s figured out, but shit, I told myself I didn’t really worship the belt and I didn’t worship the belt, but you don’t recognize until you lose the belt how many things were tied into the belt,” Woodley said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (via ESPN).

“How much opportunities and your platform and exposure, not to mention the amount of money you make and the pay-per-view [earnings]. You know, not that I’m going to stop getting invited to cool parties or collab with some real G’s in music because of who I am,” he added. ”But you forget.”

After defending his Welterweight title four times, “The Chosen One” was dethroned by Kamaru Usman at UFC 235 last month, suffering his first defeat since 2014 (highlights). Though he’d love the chance to run it back against “The Nigerian Nightmare,” it’s something that likely won’t happen straight away as the promotion will give the next title fight to Colby Covington.

As far as his comeback, Woodley will look to mirror that of Georges St-Pierre’s after he was knocked out by Matt Serra.

“Now I got to do similar to what Georges St. Pierre did when he lost to Matt Hughes and had to come back and avenge that, and lost to Matt Serra and had to come back and avenge that,” Woodley said. “I thought that everything was on the up-and-up now, don’t have to struggle this much with the promotion, don’t have to struggle this much with the gameplan. Had that pretty much down,” he added.

”Not that I got comfortable, but I thought my days of struggling was over. But they keep telling me the comeback is going to be so severe, it’s going to be so vicious that God had to [bring] me to this point. And when I come back, I’m not going to be able to even imagine what’s in store for me. So that’s kind of where I’m at mentally right now,” concluded the ex-champion.

Woodley is in talks to rematch Robbie Lawler on June 29th in the main event of UFC on ESPN 4 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But despite reports of it being finalized, “The Chosen One” says it’s not a done deal just yet.