Although many are against the upcoming bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, welterweight Tyron Woodley seems excited about this prospect.
Jake Paul recently knocked out Mike Perry in the sixth round and seems to be in top shape to face Tyson. However, I feel the fighter still needs to be a match for Tyson despite the 59-year-old being way past his prime. Paul, on the other hand, is a top-level boxer with a record of 10-1 and is still in his 20s.
Despite many seeing it as a bad idea, UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, who has battled Jake Paul in the past, says the fight may take an unexpected turn.
I’m a fan of the fight,” Woodley said on The Fighter vs. The Writer podcast. “Mike Tyson is 60, but are you trying to see Mike Tyson? So he’s still got the same fear in your heart that he had a long time ago.”
The fighter also had some opinions on the recently concluded Jake Paul vs Mike Perry bout.
“I know Mike has been training that style before he even got to the UFC,” Woodley said. “I watched all his videos. And I hear him talking about the Mike Tyson peekaboo style. What that means is that as the person is punching, you’re going to slip in and cover the ground. You’re going to buy real estate. So off of a jab, off of a cross, if you are good enough to see it and slip it, you have to be good enough to step inside as well. Because Mike Tyson was a lot shorter than a lot of his other opponents and most of his punches came from hooking punches. Mike Perry dot com, right? So Mike Perry didn’t slip and get inside. He didn’t slip hardly at all anyway. He was getting hit with jabs, and it was kind of like a rock ‘em, sock ‘em.
“Mike Perry had his hands very low. He definitely didn’t slip and step inside. He got hit with jabs, and then he didn’t have an answer for the jab.”
Woodley believes Tyson may have a better chance, seeing as his coaches invented the style of boxing Paul uses.
“[Tyson] did thousands, tens of thousands of the same drill,” Woodley said. “We watched the way Cus D’Amato trained him. He was a trained machine of his specific body type, of his specific height, and his specific attributes, especially the power, and they developed a style for him specifically. They basically engineered a style that didn’t exist before him. Even the way he had his hands [at his chin]. He wasn’t [up high on the head]. He was [on the chin] because he would take a shot and he’s going to take it by the forehead. He’s not going to get knocked out by a forehead punch. Then, when he slipped offline, guess what happens? He’s at that distance that Perry needed to be.
“But people watch it and just try to do it, but when you don’t do the drills, you’re missing steps, you’re missing the small techniques. You’re missing the minimal things that make it a major thing when you are trying to do it in real-time. Mike Tyson has not forgotten that.”
If [Tyson] has a flashback of a moment of a past fight, and he does that shit to Jake, it’s a wrap,” Woodley said. “So that’s the fight. The age is the only reason why Paul even has a chance. That’s why it’s kind of an even fight. [Paul’s] age, youth, and ability to just have a screw loose, and Mike’s experience, 60 pro fights, world titles against killers, and just being probably the most feared combat competitor ever.
Although many believe Paul has no chance, Woodley thinks the 27-year-old may have a shot. Paul may throw some hard punches that could knock out Tyson, but if Tyson manages to land a shot, it could be the end of Paul.
“I still think Mike Tyson has enough in him to knock Jake out,” Woodley said. “Could Jake win? Yeah, Jake would have to fight Mike Tyson the same way he fought Mike Perry. Jab high, jab low, move. Because you remember, Mike Tyson has his hands right [by his chin]. He’s not going to change that for this fight. So when you jab right in the middle of these two gloves, at the very minimum it’s going to push Mike back. Pushing him back keeps him out of that range that [Tyson] needs to get into.
“If Jake fights him that way and maybe lands some good body jabs, body punches, and starts to deplete him, get him frustrated, get him swinging crazy, he could maybe tire him out and then look in the later rounds to try and finish it off. That’s the game plan, and that’s the only way I see Jake beating Mike. I see a lot of different ways of Mike beating Jake.”
