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Sean Woodson | Proving Himself Every Step Forward
UFC Featherweight Sean Woodson Is Unbeaten In His Last Seven Fights, And Looks To Crack Into The Top 15 With A Win Over Dan Ige At UFC 314: Volkanovski vs Lopes
This June, for the first time in a long time, Sean Woodson will be at a UFC event without gloves and a mouthpiece, as he and his lady attend UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey.
It will be a lot different for Woodson, especially if he can punch his way into the featherweight rankings by beating Dan Ige this weekend in Miami, but win, lose or draw at Kaseya Center, the 32-year-old is in a lot better place in his life and career than he was in January of 2018, when the Octagon landed in his hometown of St. Louis for a fight night event headlined by Jeremy Stephens and Dooho Choi.
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“I don't really count that one because at the time I just got back home from the TUF tryouts and I thought I was going to be picked for that show,” said Woodson. “It was the TUF Undefeated season, so this is way back. And so I went, and I remember we ended up showing up late to the event. I wasn't there all that long and I couldn't enjoy myself. I didn’t eat, have a drink, or anything. And I was there with a couple of buddies, they were drinking and eating a bunch of good food, having a good time, and I just stayed for a fight or two and then left.”
Woodson, 4-0 as a pro at the time, must have felt far away from the UFC he was supposed to be enjoying, so he didn’t want to be there. It would be another year-and-a-half before he got the call to compete on Dana White’s Contender Series in the summer of 2019, and when he showed up to Las Vegas this time, a flying knee knockout of Terrance McKinney earned him that coveted UFC contract.
And here we are. A fighter who has long operated under the radar, Woodson is 7-1-1 in the UFC, he’s unbeaten in his last seven, and he’s won four straight. Now he’s fighting on a huge pay-pay-view event against one of the division’s best, and as Biggie would say, “Things done changed.”
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“I think I'm getting a little bit more of the respect I deserve,” he said. “I felt like I was due for a ranked guy my last outing, but they put me against a guy who was behind me, an up and comer, and I kind of showed where I stand at. There are levels to this game, and I showed that I'm more than ready for a Top 15 guy now. So now that I got Dan Ige, a Top 15 guy, I don't feel like things have exactly changed and I'm in a new realm yet, but this is definitely the beginning of that. After this fight, it'll be no doubt that things have changed and I'm on a new level. I'll be ranked.”
That last fight in December against Fernando Padilla showed just how dangerous “The Sniper” is in the 145-pound weight class. Facing off against the rare featherweight who was comparable in size, the 6-foot-2 Woodson still used his height and reach to pick apart and then finish Padilla late in the first round. It was impressive, because it’s not often that a fighter with significant physical advantages uses them to their fullest. Woodson does, and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Highlight: Sean Woodson Notches First UFC Finish | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Rodriguez
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Highlight: Sean Woodson Notches First UFC Finish | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Rodriguez
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“I think those other guys let their pride and ego get in the way,” Woodson said. “They want to show that they can bang it out and they're tough. A lot of times, tall, lanky guys like me get criticism for staying on the outside and picking guys apart with our boxing because the fans, all they want to see are Justin Gaethje-type bloodbath wars, and I feel like guys might read the comments a little too much. I'm not here to impress anybody. I'm trying to get in and get out. Clean kills, take as little damage as possible. The name of the game is hit and not get hit, and I'm trying to stay true to that.”
Despite his claims, Woodson is impressing people, and when you add wins over the likes of Youssef Zalal, Charles Jourdain and Alex Caceres to the mix, it’s no surprise that he’s not on the doorstep of the Top 15 should he defeat Hawaii’s Ige, who enters Saturday’s bout with a two-fight losing streak, albeit to UFC 314 headliner Diego Lopes and recent headliner Lerone Murphy. So Woodson doesn’t see a fighter on a slide; he sees a dangerous test that is keeping him from moving forward in his career.
UFC 314 EMBEDDED | ALL EPISODES
“I know he's dropped his last two to some really good competition,” said Woodson. Diego Lopes is fighting for the belt on the same card and Lerone Murphy is undefeated and a hot prospect. So he's on a two-fight losing streak, but neither one of those guys are chumps. Again, when you're in the UFC and you're coming off two losses in a row, you pretty much know your back's against the wall. So I'm expecting a motivated and motivated Ige that doesn't want to lose his job. I'm expecting the best Ige people have seen in a long time, the most dangerous Ige and a guy who's fighting with his back against the wall. Those are the most dangerous guys, so I'm taking him more serious than ever. I see a lot of the comments online, people are talking about the height difference and all that as if it's going to be a somewhat easy fight for me. But no, I don't view it as that at all. I'm on high alert for a dangerous Ige coming my way.”
It's what you want to hear from a fighter on the verge of big things. He’s confident, but not cocky, and he’s proven that he belongs here. So is that confidence making him feel like he can take on the winner of Saturday’s main event in his next fight?
“To be honest, from the get go, I've always had that mindset that I'm the best in the world, but the world just don't know it yet,” Woodson said. “That Julian (Erosa) fight (his lone pro loss), I feel like I slipped on a banana peel in that fight and then the (Luis) Saldana fight (his lone draw), the circumstances behind that were pretty wild. Aside from that, when you get into the UFC, it's about proving you belong, and I feel like I'm way past proving that I belong here. Now I feel like I've proved that I have what it takes to become world champion and Ige is the first step in proving that.”
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And if he ever needs any reminders of how he’s sticking to that plan of world domination, he can just look back to a Facebook post he made after that first UFC event he went to in St. Louis back in 2018.
“I took a picture of the Octagon from my seat, and I said it was my first ever live UFC event and if they ever come back, I'll have the best seat in the house in the Octagon,” he recalls. “And sure enough, the next time they were back here in St. Louis last May, I was on that card, and I fought Caceres.”
UFC 314: Volkanovski vs Lopes took place live from Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida on April 12, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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