Tyron Woodley Reveals His Timeline to Return to the UFC Following Shoulder Surgery

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is already plotting his return to the Octagon just days after having shoulder surgery.

Woodley had arthroscopic surgery performed on his right shoulder by Dr. James Andrews, one of the most famed physicians dealing with orthopedic surgery in athletes.

Woodley has already started his physical therapy and rehabilitation on the shoulder and according to the reigning and defending king at 170 pounds, he doesn’t expect to be on the sidelines for very long at all.

“Just with the stem cell and PRP (platelet rich plasma), the new technology and science, I’m gonna be fighting in the first quarter of next year,” Woodley revealed when speaking to TMZ. “In two months, I’ll be punching something.”

That’s good news for the rest of the welterweight division, who feared Woodley could be out for a big part of 2018 following his shoulder surgery.

While his focus right now remains on getting healthy, Woodley is keeping a close eye on the division including former UFC champion Rafael dos Anjos, who earned a win over Robbie Lawler last weekend that may have put him into position as the new No. 1 contender at 170 pounds.

It was a huge win for dos Anjos — his third since moving to welterweight earlier this year — but Woodley still wasn’t all that impressed by his performance.

“I wasn’t too impressed with him, I’m going to be honest and I said it to his face,” Woodley said. “I wasn’t too impressed with the performance. Just because people are punching and swinging, if you’re punching and swinging and you’re missing or you’re hitting gloves and elbows, that ain’t precision to me. When you’re landing good powerful shots and making it count, and I wasn’t really thrilled with the IQ of both guys.”

If the UFC says that dos Anjos is the next person in line for him to fight, Woodley would accept but he admits that it wouldn’t be the matchup at the top of his wish list for potential opponents.

“Would I be open to fighting him? Yeah,” Woodley said about dos Anjos. “But is he the top fighter on my list? No.”