Tyron Woodley impressed many fans on Saturday night's UFC 183 pay-per-view and not just with fighting skills, following his split decision victory against The Ultimate Fighter winner Kelvin Gastelum, Woodley declined the opportunity to take 30% of Gastelum's purse which he was entitled to.

As protocol dictates, when a fighter misses weight he forfeits a certain proportion of his purse to his opponent which, in Gastelum's case came to $9000 dollars. While some fighters might think of this money as a deserved bonus Woodley looked at it in a different light.

When asked about his opponent missing weight during Saturday's post fight press conference Woodley said:

'When they told me initially, I was pissed off, I said some words that (UFC President) Dana (White) and a million other people probably have never heard me say. I’m pretty quiet It’s just tough going through training camp, especially for me. I change a lot of things in my life, my diet – I’m not a small welterweight, myself. I’m a big guy for the welterweight division. So for me to be able to make those lifestyle changes and take it as a professional, I was just a little annoyed.'

Woodley also spoke about it in an extensive interview with our own Steph Daniels:

When we go out there to fight, we basically put ourselves through the fire, and we're not assuming we'll be losing half our money. If the purse is $5000 to show and $5000 to win, in my mind, it's $10,000, so I do my training camp with that in mind. Now, when you step in the cage, and you've put all your time, effort and money into it, and you lose, you're only coming home with half your money, and sometimes, that can leave you economically strapped. I don't know his financial situation, but I think that there was enough going on with it, that it was just another unneeded penalty, because it felt like I was just taking his money. I've had fights that I felt I won, like when I fought Jake Shields, and that loss of the win bonus felt like somebody was taking my money. When I lost to Nate Marquardt, I was actually behind in rent on my gym, and I thought to myself, ‘How am I going to make it to the next fight?' Those are the things that were going through my mind when I decided to give him the penalty money back.

After some careful reflection, the Ferguson, Missouri native decided that holding anger towards his opponent wasn't the answer.

'The kid lost, had his first loss. He’s not going to get his win bonus. Dana White has probably yelled at him. His coach has probably yelled at him. He’s probably pissed off about himself. So I just can’t find it in my heart to do that right now. But, I got the win, I had a good performance, and I feel good about it.'

While Woodley wasn't at fault for his opponent missing weight, the pressure of deciding whether not to take the fight with such a weight disparity weighed heavily on him. UFC president Dana white explained Woodley's frustrations:

'(On Friday), when he and I were talking, I’ve got know if there’s a fight,' White said. 'Are you accepting him with the 10-pound difference? And, he’s saying, ‘I feel like this thing is coming down on me now, like I’m in trouble or you’re acting like I did something wrong.’ Which I wasn’t. I’m asking if he wants to fight or not. But he’s right. He’s right in that, now he has to make a decision whether he wants to fight a kid who weighs 10 pounds more than him on the day of the weigh-in.'

Woodley's victory has likely propelled him into a number one contender fight as he currently sits in the top 5 with the only people above him being Rory MacDonald, former champion Johny Hendricks and current champion Robbie Lawler.