DALTON, Ga. — Even in an individual sport such as mixed martial arts, champions aren’t made on their own. 

For Tyron Woodley to climb to the level where he became the UFC Welterweight Champion of the World, he called it a team effort, citing contributions of his doctors, coaches, training partners, family and others. 

Woodley spoke to the importance of teamwork, whether it be in professional sports or in business, during a nearly hour-long speech and question-and-answer session on Thursday at Controlled Products in Dalton.

“There’s so many components, so many people that help me be successful,” he said during his speech. “There’s so many people behind the scenes pulling strings to make me win, because when I win we all win. … It’s your family supporting you, your kids motivating you your coaches training you.

“When I walk into a factory, I look at this and think about my situation. … When you guys all come together, you’re all different parts but you’re all part of one body.”

Woodley is sponsored by Controlled Products and he endourses Sporturf and their Combat Turf line, products manufactured at the Howell Road location in Dalton. The Ferguson, Mo. native has amassed an 18-3-1 professional record. He won the UFC Welterweight title on July 30, 2016, knocking out Robbie Lawler in the first round during a fight in Atlanta.

For Woodley, the turf provides a “functional training area” in his gym. 

“It’s been greatly beneficial to me because a lot of my training is geared toward performance training,” Woodley said of his relationship with Controlled Products and Sporturf. “I’ve already proven myself early in my career with all the hard sparring and gruesome workouts. Now it’s time to be more safe and more protective. Being a world champion is where you’ll do the best, have the biggest platform, maximize your potential financially. So, I got to be safer. It’s a safe surface for me to train, even sparring, to run, to sprint, to protect my knees. As you get older in age, you’re not the spring chicken you used to be. Running on concrete and hard surfaces isn’t that beneficial for me in mixed martial arts. It’s been a great opportunity for me to train safely.”

Woodley noted the importance of being able to speak to workers and spread his message.

“Everybody needs to recognize that I’m no different than them,” he said. “We’re all important, we’re all different parts of the body that come together to make everything work. It’s uplifting to get the camaraderie. Maybe the workflow, the output at work, it makes it a little bit better.” 

Kevin Barker is the VP of Sales and Marketing for Controlled Products. He said his company was very fortunate to have Woodley as a public face and someone to speak about Sporturf and its products, as well as speaking at events like Thursday’s in Dalton.

“To have somebody that’s as well respected as he is and be able to have someone that is not only just a fighter, but a business owner, an announcer and he’s into acting,” Barker said, “it lets us be able to have someone well-spoken that has a really great message for kids and people just getting started. For us it’s really important to have someone like him promoting our product and be able to reach out and speak to people.”

Woodley comes from an amateur wrestling background. He was a two-time All-American in high school and went 48-0 while winning a Missouri state championship in 2000. He wrestles collegiately at the University of Missouri where he became a Big 12 champion and a two-time All-American.

“Wrestling is just a great sport for discipline,” he said. “It’s sport where you have to maintain your weight. It’s a sport where you have to drill repeatitiously over and over and over again before you can master your technique. It’s a one-on-one sport. You can’t really make complaints, you can’t blame a lot of different people for your losses. It’s an opportunity for an athlete that might not be as fast, might not be as strong, might not be as tall, to still have success in the sport. It teaches a lot of life skills other sports might not teach. You got to be mentally strong, mentally tough. You got to endure. … I just love the things it’s done for me and I love the things it’s doing for my sons.”

After his college wrestling days, Woodley began to transition into mixed martial arts.

“I was a wrestler and in wrestling I didn’t achieve my goal of being a national champion,” Woodley said. “I felt if I trained as hard as I could, I felt I was the best in the country in my weight class. I did everything right and I went out there and I didn’t perform in my last tournament. It left a void there. I kept competing in wrestling and I started to do some mixed martial arts and I started to coach guys as a wrestling coach. It transitioned from that point to saying ‘Let me give this a real try.’ I feel in love with training, I fell in love with competing. I fell in love with figuring out the piece of the puzzle and taking a chess match. That made me become a world champion.”

After a draw against Stephen Thompson in his first title defense, Woodley won a rematch by majority decision. In his latest fight, he won a unanimous decision against Demian Maia in July. Woodley is currently recovering from a shoulder injury is scheduled for an upcoming surgery. Woodley said his next fight would likely come next March.

In the meantime, the world champion said he’s able to pursue other opportunities, including taking time to work with his young sons.

“There’s some things in life I would like to get in order,” he said. “I’ve been hustling and bustling all over the world. It will be a time for me to put some things in place so when I come back I will be a better version of Tyron Woodley. There’s some things business-wise I want to do. I want be around, this will be the first wrestling season I can be around for my sons and help them out with their technique and help them get better as athletes. There’s some times I’m embarrassed. I got three boys that are super athletic and there dad is gone so much I don’t get a chance to train them. There’s a few books I want to write, a few business opportunities I want to take part in.”

Woodley has also dived into the acting realm, having roles in movies including “Olympus has Fallen” and “Straight Outta Compton.”