Strikeforce Challengers: Why Strikeforce Needs Tyron Woodley To Win

Tyron Woodley is starting to make quite a name in Strikeforce’s welterweight division. He has a perfect 7-0 record and his fights are always exciting.

He is only 28 years old and has been fighting professionally for just over two years now. He has tremendous fight technique. He is fast and is a great wrestler. He has all the skills to be a big ticket item in Strikeforce for a long time.

After his second professional fight, a quick first round victory over Jeff Carstens, he caught the eye of Strikeforce. He made his Strikeforce debut at the Lawler-Shields show in June 2009 on the non-televised portion of the card. That was a victory over another local fighter in the first round via submission.

With that victory, Woodley signed a six-fight contract with the company. His first televised fight was against Zach Light at the third Strikeforce Challengers event in September 2009.

This was Woodley’s coming out party. He showed off his speed, quickness, athleticism and terrific wrestling ability. He scored a submission victory in the second round with an armbar.

Woodley’s third fight with Strikeforce was on another Challengers show, this time he was in the main event with Rudy Bears. It was another quick submission victory for Woodley. He took Bears out in less than three minutes into the first round with a triangle choke. His professional record sat at 5-0 after the victory.

The next fight for Woodley would be very controversial. It was at the Strikeforce Challengers 8 show against Nathan Coy. The two had a very good back-and-forth fight for three rounds before the judges rendered their decision. They scored it a split decision victory for Woodley, though you could very well have made a case that Coy should have won. Some more crappy judging.

In October 2010 at the Strikeforce: Diaz-Noons II event, Woodley made his main card debut. He fought in the opening fight on the main card against Andre Galvao. The fight was pretty much a massacre.

Woodley was landing hard punch after hard punch on Galvao, who had no answer at all. Galvao got so wobbly after about 5 or 6 good shots and the ref called for a stop to the fight. It was the first TKO victory for Woodley and brought his record to 7-0.

Now, Woodley gets his big chance to shine once again on Friday night's Strikeforce Challengers show. He is paired up against another really good looking up-and-coming fighter, Tarec Saffiedine, in the main event.

This will be a very interesting clash of styles fight. Both men are very good wrestlers, who have gotten better with their submission technique as their careers have gone on. They are still developing their power, but both men have the ability to knock each other out.

A loss for Woodley in this fight would be devastating. He has shown a tremendous amount of heart and charisma in his previous fights. In fact, after his last fight against Galvao, Woodley asked for a title fight between the winner of Diaz-Noons. He didn’t get it, but he’s on his way.

Woodley is a terrific, young fighter that Strikeforce really needs to build their brand around. We all love Fedor and Overeem but they are getting older. And in the case of Overeem, he fights in Japan so much that Strikeforce can’t really depend on him long term.

There is a HUGE need to create young stars. With a victory Friday night, Woodley could be their first new building block.

Plus, it would be great for Strikeforce to get one of their homegrown talents to be able to challenge for one of their championships somewhere down the line. How many of their current champions are actually products of Strikeforce? Not including the women’s division, I count one—Light Heavyweight Champion Rafael Cavalcante.

For all MMA fans, I implore you, if you haven’t seen this kid fight, go out of your way to catch the Challengers show tomorrow night. Woodley has something special and he is just biding his time waiting to get the stage to show it off.

With an impressive win, Scott Coker will be forced to make this kid a constant fixture on the main cards of Strikeforce’s biggest shows. That championship fight that Woodley asked for back in October probably isn’t that far away. So long as he keeps fighting like he has been.