Speaking to NewBettingSites.uk, Tyron Woodley claims Jake Paul is fighting Anthony Joshua to outshine his brother, Logan. He calls Paul a 'lunatic' who is capable of knocking out Joshua, and says it's an 'even fight' if Joshua is complacent.
What’s your reaction to Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua being made?
His whole brand is going big. It ain't playing it safe like KSI or some of these other guys that are saying they're gonna fight the best and don't. He fought me. He could have fought Dylan Danis or Tommy Fury at the time. He chose to fight me. He fought against Anderson Silva. He fought against the Diaz brothers. He fought against Mike Tyson. This is his brand. His brand is doing things that people think he can't do, and if he wins, he's a fucking legend. If he doesn't, he lost to fucking Anthony Joshua.
He's in a win-win situation. Not only is he fighting a heavyweight guy that used to be champion, he's fighting him with two weeks' notice, and it's a considerably different opponent than a Tank. It's a tougher fight.
I love the fight and I think he got balls to fucking take this fight on two weeks notice. He didn't fulfill the void of Tank's absence with some pushover fight. He went to a way more difficult fight with only two weeks to adjust his mentality to get ready for it, you gotta give him props for making a move like that. It is crazy. It’s fucking lunatic.
What is this delusional mentality - that makes him think he can mix it with Joshua - rooted in?
It's little brother syndrome. Logan was a star at first. Logan was a big YouTuber. Logan was the one that was in the forefront. Jake was a shadow kid. I'm not saying he was a runt offspring. He had his own motion going on, but Logan was the one that everybody was talking about. I remember doing a celebrity basketball game in LA, and Jake was there watching and Logan was playing, and he was in the background. But the difference between Jake and Logan, when they kind of started doing celebrity boxing as a bucket list thing together, Jake starts saying, “fuck it”, and fighting real fucking fighters.
What do you say to those who believe this is going to be a glorified sparring session where no-one gets hurt?
What I'll say to them is, one, it's illegal, as you'll see with this federal investigation with the UFC. It's not something that any commission is going to play games with. As I said before, I didn't throw a fight. Nobody threw a fight. If I would have won the first fight against Jake, my purse in the rematch was unreal. It was over two times the amount of money that I made the first time. It would make no sense for me to throw a fight. I would have had to walk away from the sport completely and never show my face again in combat sports again, had that been the case, so this is a real fight. Not only is it a real fight, it's not an exhibition fight. This is a professional fight. This is a win and loss on somebody's record.
I am concerned for Paul’s health in the fight, are you?
There’s genuine risk in every fight. You look at Andy Ruiz, everybody didn't give him a chance. And you can't compare this fight to Francis Ngannou. Francis Ngannou is a heavy, powerful, but slow, non-agile heavyweight that was standing right in front of Anthony, wasn't moving, wasn't moving his head, and he got hit with a shot. Anybody can get hit with a shot. Francis had no experience with being in a situation like that. And I'm not saying Jake has. But Jake brings a different element to the game. He has punching power, he has agility - he’s smart as hell, but he's dumb as hell at the same time - he's dumb as hell because he's taking a fight that people think he's crazy to take, but he's smart enough to prepare properly.
I don't think it's a massacre, I don't think it's a mismatch. Jake is not a small person, and he's consistently grown. Look at his body build. He has consistently grown. Each time we've seen him out there, size-wise, he's probably still growing.
I see it as a complete mismatch.
I don't see it that way, I'm gonna tell you why. Heavyweights get hit with hard shots. When they get hit with these hard shots, not only in the ring, but in sparring, that shit is compounding, the effect it has on you. And you got a smaller, nothing to lose, agile power puncher that can clip you and pop your chin at any point in time, you can't count him out. Because he don't have nothing to lose. The worst thing you want is somebody with their back against the wall that believe in themselves. That is the scariest motherfucker to be across the cage or ring with, somebody that believe in themselves, and has the power, and not scared to fucking throw it.
What is the compounding effect of Joshua taking those big shots?
It's the weakening of your chin. It's a weakening of the ability to take a punch.
I think Joshua, a top ten heavyweight, runs over him in round one, what do you think?
I wouldn't be surprised if this fight doesn't look the way that most people think it would look. I'm thinking what could cause a problem for Jake are the things that people aren't speaking about. It's not the power, it's not the knockout, it's the jab, it's the footwork, it's the head motion, it's the rhythm, it's just outboxing him. That's where I feel like Anthony Joshua can make it a landslide.
My first thought is that a power shot from Anthony Joshua is not what's gonna make this a lopsided fight. If you look at Jake's only loss, it wasn't because he fought somebody with power. Tommy Fury couldn't fucking bust a grape in a fruit fight. His fists are pillows, but he out-jabbed. His work rate was different and Jake couldn't even get that right hand off.
How does Paul go about doing the unthinkable - knocking Joshua out?
Fast punches where you get on the chin fast, and you get off the chin, and you twist your knuckles right as you make contact. Boom! Or it's kind of like a hammer hitting the corner of a cabinet, those are the shots that knock you the fuck out. And I feel like those are the punches that come from a smaller guy, a guy that's more agile, and a guy that's basically hitting you at speeds that heavyweights don't present to you. He's going to be used to a heavyweight punching at a slower rate. And from a more traditional boxing stance, when I followed guys that were fucking unorthodox, it kind of threw me off a little bit. And I feel like that choppy style is where Jake is still at in his career.
Do you think that's a scenario that could happen?
Did we think Francis Ngannou could catch Tyson Fury? We didn't think that. I would give it the same chance.
You know Paul well, what’s your advice to Joshua?
If Joshua thinks, 'Okay, I'm just gonna knock this guy out,' the worst thing you can do is underestimate somebody that signed a contract to fight, not to play, and their name and reputation is a big part of it. If Anthony Joshua underestimates Jake and thinks that he's just gonna knock him out because he's a heavyweight and is experienced and powerful, I feel like that is gonna make this fight way more even than it is. I feel like if Anthony Joshua goes out there and boxes him, and pops him with a jab, and jab him high, and jab him low, and double jab him, and move out of the way, and feint him, and stutter, and make him swing at big shots, and miss big, and then don't even counter him back and just make him feel like he out of his league, and then, after he tenderize the steak, then go out there and flame broil it. If he does that, then we'll see a lopsided fight. But if he underestimates Jake, if he goes out there and just thinks, 'okay, I'm gonna just rock him and knock him,' Jake's a tough cookie, man.
What do you make of the weight restriction for Joshua?
245 lbs is still big, but my gut tells me that Jake is walking around 225 lbs and any fighter that's a real fighter, 20 pounds difference is not gonna make a difference. I had a contract to fight against KSI. KSI was doing it in a way where he was trying to make it almost unsafe for the person to rehydrate. And I know that when he was trying to do a contract to fight against Jake, one of the biggest things he was doing was an unfair, unrealistic version of a rehydration clause. That was one of the biggest things that prevented that fight from happening when people really cared about it happening. I'm thinking that Jake is doing a more fair version of that same rehydration clause because he probably didn't like the way KSI was doing it, it was a real dumbass rehydration clause.
Does this fight affect Joshua’s legacy?
I feel like his legacy is intact as long as he's still striding towards the way he wanted to finish. Only Anthony Joshua knows his end. As long as his end is looking the way he wants it to look, this won't tarnish his legacy.
Is this bigger than Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul?
I don't think this fight beats it because my thought was, if there’s a 1% chance that anything remotely close to a 25-year-old Mike Tyson showed up in that ring, it was fucking problems. Then there were Instagram clips where you thought that motherfucker looked like he still got it in him? That was a bigger fight.
Why are you in London?
I'm filming a film called Roadhouse 2. I'm just like the Ric Flair guy of the bunch, I don't do a lot of talking, I'm real smooth. I fuck shit up, then I get out. The thing I like is that they are really giving guys an opportunity to learn this art of acting, but they're also keeping it close enough to their normal personality where it won't be so difficult and so tough on them.
Michael Chandler's getting the opportunity to do something that's fun, but it's also something that he can have fun with and look good at doing. They're not putting anybody in a position that they're going to look silly. We're helping to make the fight portion of it look very authentic and very real and true, and they're helping us make the acting parts good. I feel this one's going to blow the first one out of the water. From what I've seen so far, this shit is crazy.
I was just training with Rico Verhoeven [who is in the film]; we were talking about the Jake Paul fight all day. He was saying that the thing that's different about the heavyweight division is that people think they can bulk up and put on some size, and now they're a heavyweight. But the thing that you don't factor in is being able to take the punch that's coming from a heavyweight. It's coming with different type of power.
What did you make of the Dillon Danis brawl?
I think it's funny that Dillon got beat up. I don't think he even landed a punch. He got beat up, and now he can't come to a UFC fight ever. But I didn't hear any consequences for any of the people that beat him up. What you have to realize is Danis is a troll first. Before a fighter, before a coach, he is a professional troll. That's what he does. And culturally, and I know this just from doing a reality show in Dubai with 90% Russian fighters, they don't take what you say verbally as a joke or trolling. You call them a pussy or other names, they gotta defend their honor, right? You bring up religion and family, you may think you're building up a fight and doing it for the press conference, but they don't forget that. And it's serious to them, and they're gonna defend that. And their brotherhood is strong. Their biggest flex is discipline. Look at all the Khabib videos, they don't wanna have the Bugatti and the jewelry. They want to have an undefeated record. Discipline is the biggest flex, and that's the thing that they admire the most. So, when somebody comes up against one of their brothers, they're going to be willing to defend that, and I feel like that's what we saw. I'm not saying it's right, I'm not taking a side. I do feel like in America, and really in general, let somebody say whatever they want to say, word should not hurt. That's humor.
Do you think that Islam stepped out of Khabib's shadow on Saturday?
He's still in the shadow of Khabib. When I hear Islam, I can't think of Islam by himself. When I hear the word Islam, I think of Khabib. First thing you say is Khabib's prodigy. That's all I'm thinking of. Even now. He didn't beat me for a welterweight championship, he didn't beat George St. Pierre. No disrespect to the guy, but he's still fairly unknown internationally as a fighter. It was his first ever title defense and it was a style made in heaven for Islam. I feel like he's still in the shadows of Khabib.
Ian Garry vs. Belal Muhammad ?
I gotta go with Belal Muhammad. He's a guy that, I feel like for his skill set and what people on paper would say, he's an overachiever, I gotta go with him. Ian is a fucking stud, though. Solid fighter, dangerous in a lot of areas, but, I'm always gonna rock with Belal.
Arman Tsarukyan vs. Dan Hooker?
I don't like Hooker. I'm always going against him, he’s going to get knocked out. Hooker's getting knocked out now. When Israel Adesanya and I had a little back and forth, he just joined in like a little girlfriend. I'm like, dude, shut up. Stay out of grown folk business.
What should Ilia Topuria do next?
I think Ilia is very conscious of his brand. He's a star, and it didn't take a moment to get there. I feel like he's not going to keep chasing Islam, it's like bullying at this point, the dude clearly went up to welterweight. He's not going to come back and fight you at lightweight. I would like to see Ilia box Conor Benn. I know it's crazy, but I think he'll beat him. Ilia is so dynamic and so versatile, and he's got power in both hands and both punches. I feel like his IQ, the way that Benn just comes forward with the same punches over and over again for the whole 12 rounds, I think if you do that two or three rounds, by the fourth round, Ilia will adjust and have him on the ground.I think he is currently the biggest star in the UFC.
