Social media celebrity Jake Paul’s boxing career is looking set to continue, as Mike Coppinger reports that Paul will face UFC veteran Tyron Woodley in his next outing, with the fight set to be announced officially on Friday, two days before Jake’s brother Logan headlines a pay-per-view with Floyd Mayweather.
This will be the first fight for Paul (3-0, 3 KO) as part of his new deal with Showtime, making the jump from Triller, who broadcast his first two pay-per-view bouts. The 24-year-old Jake, the younger of the Paul brothers, last fought on April 17, beating Ben Askren via first round TKO in Atlanta.
But while the 39-year-old Woodley comes from the same sport as Askren, they’re very different fighters. Nobody is going to confuse Woodley (19-7 in mixed martial arts) with a world class boxer, but nobody should be confusing Jake Paul with one, either, and Woodley is certainly a better boxer than Askren, who was always really bad at boxing even by MMA standards, where Georges St-Pierre became lauded as a genius boxer because he figured out you can jab people.
Woodley has lost his last four fights, all in UFC, and hasn’t actually won a fight since 2018. He is also notable for a small role in the movie Cut Throat City, where — spoiler alert — his character gets his penis bitten by a raccoon.
The matchup is not a surprise, as Woodley was part of Askren’s team in April, and had some beef in the locker room with Paul’s crew, including (ex?) boxer J’Leon Love, as Woodley was the one overseeing Paul getting his hands wrapped. It’s certainly the most threatening fight Paul has signed to date, if indeed it goes through, which brings with it a chance for Jake to gain a bit more credibility with “his haters” or doubters, and also the glimmer of hope for said “haters”/doubters that Woodley might be enough to expose him.