UFC star Jorge Masvidal has said that he would have advised Jake Paul not to take his upcoming fight with Tyron Woodley.
Paul and Woodley will square off in the ring on August 29 in the YouTube star's fourth pro fight and what will be the former UFC welterweight champion's boxing debut.
Masvidal and Woodley have been close friends for years, but the Miami native is also friendly with Paul, having trained with the YouTube star in the lead up to his fight with Masvidal's old rival Ben Askren earlier this year.
And the two-time title contender Masvidal has said he expects this to be a particularly tough test for the social media sensation, saying he would not have recommended the YouTuber go down this path.
"Jake's going to go and fight Woodley now and man, Woodley is a hell of an athlete," Masvidal said on Entourage star Jeremy Piven's podcast How U Livin' J Piven.
"He's training man, he's in shape and I like Jake, I've met him a couple of times but Woodley is like my brother we've trained together for 13, 14 years beating the crap out of each other.
"We've exchanged information and he's helped me out with a lot of situations other than just training and stuff so I know this guy in and out in the gym.
"I give a lot of props to Jake, man, he's got a very good team behind him and they're going outside of their comfort zone for sure picking Woodley.
"I'm sure they're positive they think they're going to win, but if I were Jake's manager I wouldn't have picked that fight I would have said 'let's work our way there, or stay away from this guy as long as we can'.
"That's a guy who is really coming to fight and who can crack."
Paul is a favourite with the bookies, with Woodley having lost his last four UFC fights to Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington, GIlbert Burns and Vicente Luque, and Paul going 3-0 so far with three KOs in his career.
But Masvidal, and Piven, feel that perhaps there is a chance the YouTUber's team have taken him likely, having been stopped by his last two opponents in Covington and Luque.
"They have to be, that's the only way that you could be led to believe they picked Woodley," Masvidal said when asked if Paul's team had taken Woodley as an opponent due to his recent record.
"They must think like he's a shell of himself now and this shell we can beat, that's the only thing that I'm thinking because obviously they know Woodley in his prime they could never take him on.
"It's not to diss either side but this is not what Jake has done his whole life, Woodley's wrestled since he was seven or eight years old he's been in some form of combat his whole life it's all he knows.
"He has extreme, explosive power."
