Jake Paul Acknowledges Tyron Woodley Tested Him

Coming up Saturday night in Tampa, YouTube/social media star turned fighter Jake Paul will take an immediate rematch with former UFC champion, Tyron Woodley in the main event of Showtime’s pay-per-view. And, while Paul is full of bravado and, at times unsubstantiated claims, he did make an interesting admission to the media on Wednesday.

That was about Woodley not only hitting him, but giving him at least a test in their last fight in August. Paul spoke to the media Wednesday soon after his open to the public workout ended and he had jumped into the swimming pool at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino just east of downtown Tampa.

You read that correctly.

But, after somewhat drying off, the unbeaten Paul gave respect to the man that he earned a decision over back in this Summer in front of a sold out downtown Cleveland arena,

"I wasn't happy with my performance last time."@jakepaul has a chip on his shoulder 🥊

Order #PaulWoodley ➡️ https://t.co/K8evGXftD4 pic.twitter.com/vGr7B4QPoE

— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) December 15, 2021

“It’s boxing and you’re going to get tagged. Now that I’ve been through it, I have a lot more confidence going into this fight. Tyron was the first person who ever landed a punch against me and it was a great learning experience.

If I would have went in there and just knocked him out, I wouldn’t be as good as I am right now. I wouldn’t have had the same hunger to improve in training camp.”

But then Paul down-played a follow up question about whether Woodley hurt him?

“Woodley’s power was about a four out of 10. The shot he caught me with was a lucky shot while I was falling backward. My balance was just off so it barely hurt. I’ve been hit by people harder in sparring.”

Still, it’s a valid point that Woodley got his attention and will look to pick back up on that in fight two on Saturday.

For his part, the former UFC Welterweight Champ  is thrilled to be a late replacement for England’s Tommy Fury and get the chance to finish what he started when he had fans and observers buzzing by tagging Paul in fight one..

And, while Paul is saying that the first matchup was good for him to learn from, you have to believe that Woodley, who has very limited boxing experience, has learned from it also.

Now, we’ll see what it means for both Saturday night.