Tyron Woodley has a new promotion and wants to promote it by getting big names to join him. According to the former UFC welterweight champ, it includes Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz. However, as Woodley shared, GSP turned down the offer, while Diaz provided an uncertain response.
Woodley launched The Realest International Promotion (TRIP), which the fighter described as a promotion for “all things art and not just about MMA. In particular, the fighter promised to cover “music, concerts, festivals, cryptocurrency, e-sporting events, boxing, and … a lot of crossover.” Woodley intends to join the fights in the new promotion, but the ultimate goal is to secure renowned fighters.
In a recent interview with TMZ, Woodley revealed presenting the offer to “Rush.” As an icon in the MMA world with nine title defenses, Woodley hopes to include GSP in his promotion. According to “The Chosen One,” the company offered an eight-figure deal to the veteran, who, unfortunately, turned it down.
“I’m looking to fight guys that are legendary to me that I feel like may not have gotten the respect and the money that they should have gotten when they were at the top of the top,” Woodley shared. “Like Georges St-Pierre, I offered him a dumb bag. He said no. ‘I’m not in that world anymore.’”
Woodley also claimed to offer the same to Diaz but said he received an unclear response from the retired mixed martial artist.
“I offered Nick Diaz a dumb bag. When I say dumb, I mean pushing to eight figures, a lot of money,” Woodley added. “… Nick didn’t say no. Nick liked the comment, so I don’t know what that means.”
While Diaz’s answer is news, St-Pierre’s refusal is not a surprise. Earlier this month, GSP reiterated his current status as a retired fighter, although he also shared the possibility of returning to grappling.
“I promise you, I always told myself that I will not fight in the cage after the age of 40,” St-Pierre said during the UFC Fight Pass Invitational event this month. “I don’t say I will never compete in any combat sport event, but a fight in a cage professionally in a serious thing for my legacy, I will not do it.
“I’m extremely competitive and sometime I forget that I’m 42 years old and I don’t give myself enough rest and that’s why I think I partially tear my labrum, my subscap and my rotator cuff but my shoulder is getting better and we’ll see how it goes,” said GSP. “We’ll see how I recuperate from it because it depends how it’s going to heal, and I’m afraid that sometimes it leaves a scar or a chronic problem, and I don’t want that to happen. I want to make sure I heal 100% right before getting back into high-level training.”
