UFC president Dana White hinted that former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley should start thinking about retirement after suffering his fourth successive defeat.

“The Chosen One” Woodley (19-7-1) lost via second-round submission to 10th-ranked Vicente Luque (20-7-1) at UFC 260, making it four losses in as many fights since losing his title to Kamaru Usman in 2019.

Despite a much-improved performance, White believes American Woodley may need to call time on his impressive career, which includes wins over Robbie Lawler and Stephen Thompson (twice). Woodley has no fights left on his contract and is likely to slide further down the rankings.

“How old is Tyron now, 39?” White asked the media in the post-event press conference at the Apex facility in Las Vegas. “That’s four in a row. Yeah.”

Luque caught Woodley with a clean counterpunch while struggling to find his own feet earlier in the fight. The 29-year-old Brazilian eventually submitted Woodley, handing him the first submission loss of his career.

“They came out to fight. Obviously Luque is a rising star and Woodley – who takes a lot of criticism – that kid came to fight tonight and he went out on his shield,” White said.

“The Silent Assassin” Luque conceded there were moments in the fight where he had to process he was facing such a successful fighter in Woodley, but insisted he had the game plan covered having watched his opponent’s losses to Usman, Colby Covington and Gilbert Burns.

“It’s the biggest win of my career. I’m definitely super excited,” Luque said. “He started real strong and I expected that. It’s crazy, whenever somebody fights me, I always get the best out of those guys. I don’t know if it’s my style and they know I’m going to go in there and try to knock them out or submit them every single minute.

“He connected a little bit behind my ear with a strong right hand. I knew he hits hard and knew that I didn’t want to get punched by him clean. Thank God I have a hard chin. I’m used to getting hit and being able to survive.

“For a little bit I lost my balance and saw two or three of him [in front of me], but I knew at that point he was going to try and knock me out. I used my striking skills to counter attack him and it paid off.”

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kwLG70a1mppmiqbaiuIyaqa2rX6K2ubHDZqSaqqSerq15wKurrGeRp8Gqr8ueZmxpYmyAc4OOrp2cZZSWu6J51qGgrZ1dnbavwNJmq7Kqn6N6uLvOnaOesV2otbDBy50%3D