Tyron Woodley’s foray into the boxing world against Jake Paul has a location.
Woodley and Paul will headline a Showtime Boxing pay-per-view card on Sunday, Aug. 29, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Showtime announced Monday. Paul is a Cleveland native.
“I grew up going to Cavs, Browns and Indians games on the weekends, dreaming as a little kid of one day being in a position to put on a show for my hometown like they did,” Paul said in a news release. “On Aug. 29, that dream comes true. My biggest challenge to date, in front of the city that made me, on pay-per-view for the world to see me knock out a UFC champion.”
The fight will take place at a 190-pound catchweight and will be eight rounds. Paul and Woodley are scheduled to face off again Tuesday at a news conference in Los Angeles. Their first faceoff resulted in upwards of four minutes of back-and-forth insults.
Paul (3-0 boxing) made headlines in April with a first-round knockout of former Bellator and ONE Championship titleholder Ben Askren in a Triller Fight Club boxing event. Paul’s previous two victories came over NBA veteran Nate Robinson and YouTuber Ali Eson Gib.
Woodley previously expressed his desire for the matchup, openly challenging Paul in an interview with TMZ.
“Come and get this smoke for real,” Woodley said. “I’m in, and I can actually find him. People that keep talking about fighting him, they’re not even in position to fight him. I can actually fight him.”
Woodley (19-7-1 MMA, 9-6-1 UFC) is currently ranked No. 11 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie welterweight rankings. The former UFC champion recently ended his tenure in MMA’s biggest promotion following an eight-year run. “The Chosen One” closed out his octagon career on a four-fight skid, ceding his title to current champ Kamaru Usman before also suffering setbacks against current top contenders Gilbert Burns, Colby Covington and Vicente Luque.
“I’m a grown-ass man,” Woodley stated. “I don’t play games with kids. They brought me in to take the trash out. You’re welcome.”
