Coming off a win over Charles Jourdain, Sean Woodson finally gets to compete for the UFC at home when UFC St. Louis arrives on Saturday night at the Enterprise Center.
Though he’s a local, Woodson (11-1-1) noted during this week’s media day that he hasn’t “fought here in god knows how long. Super-excited to fight here in the UFC, in my home town.”
Back in 2017 when the UFC last visited the city, Woodson was on hand— as a fan. That experience drove him to set a goal of being on the card whenever the promotion returned. “Next time they come back, I’ll have the best seats in the house: in the octagon,” Woodson recalled promising himself. “That’s crazy and stuff.”
“I feel like I knew in my heart whenever they came back here, I would be on that card.” After his last fight, Woodson started hear talk of a UFC return to St. Louis, and immediately got his manager on the case, looking to get him on it. The only shock was that it took so long to get a fight booked, in this case against Alex “Bruce Leeroy” Caceres.
“I didn’t think I’d have to do too much to get on this card, I thought I would have been one of the first guys on this card, ended up being one of the last. I was a little stressed for a second, I was like ‘are they really not going to throw me on this card?’ But yeah I’m thrilled to be on here. It’s a dream come true but at the same time I’m doing my best to treat it just like any other fight.”
Any other fight or not, Woodson is expected a heated battle against a veteran in Caceres.
“I was expecting to go to war with [Charles] Jourdain. That didn’t happen, I was surprised. I feel like he kind of accepted the range, he kind of accepted that he couldn’t get in on me. But I don’t see Caceres doing that. He’s a veteran, super-experienced. He’s a guy that when he’s in there, every moment of the fight he’s trying to win.”
Woodson believes Caceres will “keep trying, he’s going to keep trying.” In response, “keep denying him over and over again” is the plan. “He’s got a funky and weird style, I’ve got a funky and weird style, so I feel like this has no other option but to be an exciting fight.”
Watch the full UFC St. Louis media day appearance by Sean Woodson above.
