Teddy Atlas has a prediction for Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley and it’s wild
Who does Teddy Atlas believe will come out on top when Jake Paul faces Tyron Woodley?
We’re just mere days away from the next venture of Jake Paul in professional boxing, as the younger of the Paul brothers will do battle with Tyron Woodley in the main event of a Showtime Boxing pay-per-view card on Aug. 29.
This week, many pundits, commentators, celebrities and fight fans will give their takes and predictions on the fight — if they haven’t done so already.
Teddy Atlas, one of boxing’s most legendary, world-class championship trainers, shared his thoughts on the newest edition of his “THE FIGHT with Teddy Atlas” podcast (h/t MMAJunkie).
While Woodley has never competed in a professional boxing contest before, some believe that his success in MMA — being a former Strikeforce and UFC welterweight champion, holding the latter title from 2016 through 2019 — could help give Paul a tougher matchup and lead Woodley to victory.
Atlas, however, doesn’t see things that way, saying there’s a logical reason why Paul picked Woodley, who parted ways with the UFC earlier this year, as an opponent.
“[Paul] can sell it…It’s because there’s going to be credibility attached to it,” Atlas explained. “He’s fighting a guy who’s going to be tough. He’s fighting a guy who’s a striker, who was a champion, and that’s part of the reason it’s going to sell and part of the reason he picked Woodley because you can attach credibility to this fight saying the guy could win.”
Teddy Atlas predicts that Jake Paul will be able to knock out Tyron Woodley
Woodley won the UFC 170-pound title with a first-round knockout of Robbie Lawler and made successful defenses of the title against Stephen Thompson (twice), Demian Maia and Darren Till, but he hasn’t won a fight since the final successful title defense.
Woodley lost his last four fights in the UFC, beginning with his dropping of the UFC gold to current champ Kamaru Usman at UFC 235. He dropped a decision to Gilbert Burns, was finished by Colby Covington and was submitted by Vicente Luque.
“I’ll say it, and this is not to be disrespectful – I already said the things I needed to say about how much I respect [Woodley] – but he’s shot,” Atlas said. “He has the look of a shot fighter in MMA and UFC. Now a lot of people are going to say because he’s a professional fighter and a former champion that he’s going to beat Paul.
“He’s in a bad place mentally. He’s in a bad place physically. He’s not in his best place. Now having said what I said, losing those last four fights, 39 years old, he lost those to real fighters.”
The Paul brothers are the main source in boxing’s recent trend of celebrity and freakshow fights, with Jake Paul’s first and sole amateur fight coming on the undercard of the first fight between his brother, Logan, and Deji Olatunji.
Since then, Jake Paul has started a professional boxing career that has seen him knock out AnEsonGib, former NBA star Nate Robinson and another former MMA fighter in Ben Askren — the latter of which is a good friend and training partner to Woodley.
And while Woodley has plenty more professional fighting experience, and won the UFC welterweight title with a one-punch knockout, Atlas feels Paul’s physical advantages, combined with Woodley’s downward momentum, could carry Paul to a KO victory.
“Paul’s the bigger guy. He’s strong. [He] has that advantage and he has the opportunity to throw, which is a decent right hand that he possesses,” Atlas said. “He’s got the opportunity to throw it and land it because of the style of Woodley and the mistakes of Woodley. [Woodley] stands straight up. He’s predicable. He throws that slow jab. He throws it halfway out. He lets you get close. Paul’s got a good right hand. He’s going to land the right hand.
“So bad news is, Paul is going to knock him out.”
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