Jake Paul is set to face Anthony Joshua on Netflix next Friday December 19th, and everyone is very excited to see ‘“The Problem Child”’ encounter a problem he probably can’t solve. For years he’s prayed on older, over the hill MMA fighters like Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva. Now he faces a legitimate two-time heavyweight […]
Jake Paul is set to face Anthony Joshua on Netflix next Friday December 19th, and everyone is very excited to see ‘“The Problem Child”’ encounter a problem he probably can’t solve. For years he’s prayed on older, over the hill MMA fighters like Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva. Now he faces a legitimate two-time heavyweight and Olympic boxing champion.
With that at the top of the card, it’s unsurprising that people have largely forgotten about much of the undercard. But there’s some interesting stuff there, including the aforementioned Woodley and Silva fighting each other in a boxing match.
Woodley has come closer than anyone else to knocking out Paul, nearly derailing the YouTuber-turned-boxer’s hype train in their first 2021 fight. He hopes to prove he’s still got it against “The Spider,” and he’s had some surprising help preparing for the fight.
“I’m doing [Road House 2] right now, so a lot of us are training and getting ready for fight scenes,” Woodley told BettingLouge. “There are a lot of martial artists around, and specifically Michael ‘Venom’ Page, who is a perfect replica to train with to get ready for Anderson.”
“More than just a fighter, he’s got a phenomenal mind for the sport,” Woodley said of “MVP.” “He’s almost stepped into a coaching role for me, especially with accountability. I feel comfortable with him saying, ‘You need to do this more, don’t do that,’ because he fights a similar style to Silva: flashy, elusive, open-space striker, very quick, hard to hit, hard to grab.”
“Pinning him in a corner of the ring, landing shots on him, dealing with his unpredictability gives you the same type of anxiety someone would feel preparing for Anderson.”
Woodley promised that his fight with Silva will ‘steal the show,’ and he needs a big performance to prove he’s still capable of victory. His last win came in 2018 against Darren Till. Following that he lost four in a row to close out his UFC career and then dropped two boxing matches to Jake Paul.
“I get a chance to beat somebody that I feel like is a legend,” Woodley said. “And I want to be left as a legend. Like, some people may say, ‘Okay, you’re already a legend.’ But I don’t feel that way yet. And I feel like beating somebody like Anderson Silva gives me a fight and a victory that I’m proud of.”
“My kids will benefit from it, because they’ll see their dad succeed, and bounce back, and they’ll see the comeback season, but this is for me. It’s not personal against him, but it’s personal for me going out there and not holding back, and letting go, and freeing my hands up, it’s been a chain that I’ve always wanted to break.”
Woodley has always had a piston of a right hand but got strangely tentative using it in the latter part of his career. When he hit Paul with it in their first fight, he didn’t jump on the Disney kid. He held back and it cost him the fight. Is “T-Wood” finally in a place where he’s ready to go out there and fire at will? Against a dangerous counter-striker like Silva, it could be dangerous.
No guts, no glory, and Woodley sounds like he really wants that glory.
Category: General Sports
