Former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley gave Jake Paul credit for possessing hard punching power ahead of their boxing rematch.
Woodley, who faces Paul for the second time this Saturday in the main event on Showtime pay-per-view, promised to change up his approach with a higher volume. However, his reflection on Paul’s punching power might be the most revealing characteristic of his opponent’s abilities inside the ring, as he compared it to a fellow former UFC welterweight champ.
“I respected it when I watched him – Ben Askren got hit by Robbie Lawler, who cooked many guys,” Woodley explained about Paul’s punching power Wednesday during a pre-fight interview on Showtime. “He (Lawler) didn’t knock Ben out with MMA gloves on, so when he (Paul) did it with boxing gloves, of course (I respected it). I was in his corner.
“Anybody that has the power to just – actually, I would compare it to Robbie, to be honest. Robbie had what we call that ‘dumpy’ power. He didn’t have to move a lot. He could just stand there and hit you with a punch. You’ve got to respect that.”
Paul knocked out Askren in the first round of their boxing match in April. Woodley cornered Askren for the fight, and a backstage altercation on fight night led to Woodley and Paul facing off four months later.
Woodley lost the first meeting with Paul by split decision, but many felt the former UFC champ could’ve done more in the fight to sway the judges or potentially end the fight outright before going to the scorecards. Ahead of the rematch, Woodley plans to switch up his game plan and offer more volume to keep Paul on his toes.
“It wasn’t a ton of volume from him, or me, from a boxing standpoint,” Woodley said. “But from an MMA standpoint, it was more than I was doing in my last fights. So, I gotta look at the blessing in disguise. I can’t be so hard on myself.
“I would like to do more volume. We looked at the strike count from last fight, and we had to match that every round in training. So every round in training has been a conscious thing on my mind to throw more, throw more, throw more. Not just throw to throw. It’s shots I saw that I could have thrown that I didn’t. Just making it make sense and when he throws punches, it’s making him pay the consequence.”
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