UFC Champ Tyron Woodley to Undergo Shoulder Surgery

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is going under the knife. 

After first contemplating surgery on his injured shoulder as far back as this summer following a win over Demian Maia in July, Woodley has finally decided to have the procedure done.

Woodley was hopeful that he could just rest and rehabilitate the shoulder but over time he eventually decided that surgery was going to be the best course of action.

According to Woodley, his surgery isn’t a complete shoulder reconstruction, which would obviously put him out of action for an extended period of time, but this will require some recovery time. 

“The situation with my shoulder, I was trying to rehab it, I was trying to see if I could not have to undergo surgery,” Woodley explained on “UFC Tonight”.  “I was actually going to take a fight with Mr. Nate Diaz prior to the surgery and then have it afterwards but that fight did not shake out. So therefore, I’m going to undergo not a full reconstruction, they’re going to clean my shoulder out, anchor down the parts that they need to anchor down and then it will be on the road to recovery after that.”

There’s no exact timeline when Woodley could return but obviously it won’t be until deep into 2018.

In the meantime, the welterweight division will continue to move forward with a potential No. 1 contender’s bout this weekend between former champion Robbie Lawler and Rafael dos Anjos while No. 3 ranked contender Colby Covington continues to call out the champion to face him in the Octagon.