Tyron Woodley reveals his biggest mistake during UFC title run

Tyron Woodley once ruled the UFC welterweight division, but he feels he lost sight of what got him to the dance.

Once Georges St-Pierre vacated the 170-pound gold in late 2013, it opened the door for some new blood at the top. The title bounced from Johny Hendricks to Robbie Lawler, and then Woodley. Of the three names mentioned after GSP, who held the gold for over 2,000 days, Woodley had the longest reign at 945 days.

It was an impressive feat for “The Chosen One,” who ultimately dropped the welterweight title to Kamaru Usman. In an interview with MMAFighting, Woodley was open about making the wrong choices in the midst of his title run.

“At that time in my career, I lost focus and I was focusing too much on the lifestyle and too much on the things that came along with it. Women, partying — not like drinking and drugs and stuff — but just being at the Maxim 100 party. I was invited everywhere and I just became a socialite. I feel like that took the place that the focal point should have been in.”

While Woodley didn’t necessarily spiral, he admitted that he didn’t put all the pieces together during a time when he should have.

“I just started living two different lives,” Woodley said. “I was a great father. I was a great athlete. I was terrible husband and I was living a rockstar life. But nobody was outworking me, nobody was out training me and nobody was out parenting me.

“Them things I was better than a fighter but when it came down to the other spots, I thought those things were separate. They’re not. They’re all combined together. I fooled myself into think they were separate and they weren’t.”

Woodley is set to have his third boxing match against UFC Hall of Famer Anderson Silva on Friday. The bout will be featured on the Jake Paul vs Anthony Joshua card. BJPenn.com will be providing coverage of the event and you can expect video highlights on the homepage.