LOS ANGELES – Tyron Woodley doesn’t mind giving credit to Jake Paul.
The former UFC welterweight champion won’t shy away from saying he’s preparing for a formidable foe ahead of his professional boxing debut. Woodley takes on the YouTube star in an eight-round, 190-pound catchweight boxing match on Aug. 29 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
Woodley is training as if he were facing one of the world’s best, and is not going to let Paul’s antics distract him from properly getting ready for their fight.
“This is an opportunity for me to sprint into the boxing lane, but also I’m preparing accordingly – I’m preparing as if I were fighting Canelo (Alvarez)” Woodley told reporters following Tuesday’s press conference. “I’m training like that right now. And the people that are training me, I’m training with world champions who are defending their belts. We’re running together, we’re hitting mitts together, we spar. All these things are cohesive.
“So for me I’m just really blessed. People say, ‘I’m happy, I’m happy,’ but these motherf*ckers are not happy for real. They’re wearing spider-man underwear on stage and passing out cupcakes to their opponent, but they’re terrified and they hate this sh*t. For me, I weigh 190 (pounds). I’ve been killing myself to make 170 all these years, so now I’m going to go out there refreshed, renewed, and ready to turn up.”
Woodley believes the Paul brothers deceive people with their trash talk, YouTube videos and everything in between. But Woodley thinks the Paul brothers are legit athletes who are putting in the work and respecting the sport of boxing.
“Jake is an athlete, they wrestled in Ohio and his brother placed in states,” Woodley said. “They haven’t had it easy. Ohio is the fourth or fifth best state for recruiting. I recruited, I was a wrestling coach. We would go PA first then New York, and then we would go to California. Ohio is right there with New Jersey. So to place there and then go wrestle division one, don’t let that fool you. Don’t let the Disney, the blogger fool you.
“He’s an athlete and he’s really trying to go out there and fighting without the pressure by minimizing what he’s doing and how he’s preparing. On the internet he’s like, ‘Oh, I’m going to knockout the five time world champion and now he’s giving me the credit. But side-by-side, I’m washed up and old. But I’m still faster, I’m still stronger and I’ve been hit with everything you can get hit with. I’ve also put a lot of people down.”
Tyron Woodley taking Jake Paul seriously: ‘I’m preparing as if I were fighting Canelo’