CLEVELAND, Ohio — Jake Paul is so confident he will knock out Tyron Woodley on Sunday that he predicted he would send the former UFC welterweight champion into early retirement from all combat sports disciplines. The YouTube star then said he had no problem admitting it — he’s already looking past Woodley at what might be next.
Paul (3-0, 3 KOs), the 24-year-old social media influencer, was as brash as ever during Thursday’s final press conference when he sat shirtless under a pile of iced out chains and traded words with Woodley, 39, until security and local police were forced to separate the opposing teams in a skirmish that threatened to turn violent.
Despite the fact that Woodley (19-7-1 in MMA) represents the toughest challenge — by far — to the young boxing career of Paul when the two meet inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in an 8-round bout agreed to at a catchweight of 190 pounds (Showtime PPV, 8 p.m. ET), Paul confirmed something he teased about just a day earlier at the outdoor public workout.
Unproven light heavyweight Tommy Fury, the 22-year-old half brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, was given a prominent spot on Sunday’s PPV card as a bit of a tryout. Should Fury (6-0, 4 KOs) defeat Paul’s sparring partner, former MMA fighter Anthony Taylor (0-1 in boxing) this weekend, he could be next in line on Paul’s journey toward being considered a legitimate fighter.
“[Fury] is good looking, really good looking. It makes sense and that’s a huge fight,” Paul told “Morning Kombat” on Wednesday. “It seems to be right in the palm of both of our hands. We do have to go out and perform on Sunday and I want to see how the U.S. crowd receives him. I want to see if he has that star power the whole entire week.”
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Fury, with his muscular frame and matinee idol looks, rose to a level of stardom on his own in 2019 by finishing as the runner-up in Season 5 of the British reality television show “Love Island.” Since then, given his ongoing relationship to his girlfriend and co-star Molly-Mae Hague along with his fighting family last name, Fury has only seen his level of stardom grow by becoming regular fodder for the tabloids.
“Jake Paul is a YouTuber and has only been doing this a short while but the guy is good, you can’t say he is not,” Fury told “Morning Kombat” on Wednesday. “He looks as good as he can after three fights, let’s not mistake this. But to think he can call out these names, it’s ridiculous. He needs to stop. If he wants to be a real fighter and get respect in this sport, stop talking about Canelo [Alvarez] and [Floyd] Mayweather. Knuckle down and stop fighting MMA people. We all know the reason why he’s fighting them. Start fighting real fighters.
“If he wants to get it on, we can get it on.”
Although Paul was talking up the potential of a Fury fight while jawing with Woodley on Thursday, his tune changed a bit the day before when the potential of how big a fight between him and Fury was discussed. Paul said that Fury doesn’t have the same track record drawing numbers on PPV as others he has called out — including UFC welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal — and said there are serious conditions Fury will need to first prove in order to be deemed worthy.
“I still don’t think [British fans] have actually tuned in to watch his fights,” Paul said. “When you look at his pay-per-view numbers, it doesn’t live up to it. When you are making a fight against Jake Paul, it has to make sense for a lot of things from height and weight to experience, pay-per-view buys, notoriety, the ability to sell a fight and the timing of it.”
Fury said he wasn’t willing to talk much about the future of a fight between them until he gets past Taylor first. He did say a fight between them would produce massive box-office numbers. Asked if he and Paul could fill a 50,000-seat soccer stadium in his native England, Fury said they would do so easily.
“It’s a massive, massive colossal fight and everybody knows that. Provided we get through our fights, let’s get it on,” Fury said. “I am not running from nobody. God willing, we both come through on Sunday, there is no more excuses. I am one of the most Instagram famous, Jake is a world famous phenomenon. This is a mega fight, don’t get me wrong. I’m not here to jinx anything.”
One thing Fury did want to make clear is that he’s not in boxing or seeking a potential fight with Paul because he’s merely after the money or celebrity status that could come with it. Like his family name — he and Tyson Fury share the same father — he is a fighter first, foremost and only.
“To be a Fury, you grow up fighting. You don’t do anything else. As a kid, it’s fight, fight, fight,” Fury said. “That’s all I have done my entire life. I don’t feel one bit of pressure when you try to live up to somebody. I have said this time and time again that there will never, ever be another Tyson Fury. No one will ever come close. I’m only trying to be the best I can do.
“I have been living and training like a demon. I don’t care about fame, I don’t care about money. All I am in this is to be the champion. I am on a long road and I am stopping off to refill the car. This is easy money. I am not part of this YouTube thing. I have been doing this sport my entire life and I have come here to show these boys you can’t just pick this thing up. There is the YouTube thing and then you have the real deal, and that’s me. Don’t put me in that YouTube category because I am not in that category.”
