5 UFC fighters who predicted Jake Paul to beat Tyron Woodley
Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley, the former long-term UFC welterweight kingpin, is drawing near. At a glance, most would expect an esteemed mixed martial artist to wipe the floor with a Disney channel star and vlogger. However, nothing with either Paul or Woodley is that simple right now.
At a professional level, Jake Paul has never fought a professional boxer. The three opponents he's taken on have all lost to him rather handily. Most recently, he knocked out Ben Askren in round one. The days of Askren being seemingly unbeatable were suddenly even further away than his five-second loss at UFC 239 made them.
Tyron Woodley, meanwhile, has seen better days in his fighting career. The 39 year-old has not won a fight since Kamaru Usman took the welterweight title from him at UFC 235.
Despite the slump he finds himself on, Woodley has received support and hype from the majority of the MMA community. There are, however, a select few who believe Woodley's losing ways are about to get a whole lot worse. Here are five UFC fighters past and present who believe Jake Paul is set to go 4-0.
#5. UFC lightweight fighter Jeremy Stephens
Jeremy Stephens recently returned to the UFC after a 14 month lay-off. Sadly for the lightweight knockout artist, he was unable to break his three year skid. ‘Lil Heathen’ fell to Mateusz Gamrot via submission in the first round when his foe locked in a kimura.
Interestingly, the man with the second most knockdowns in UFC history (18, tied with Anderson Silva) sees a similar run of bad luck for Tyron Woodley. When asked by James Lynch for his prediction, Stephens, while praising Woodley’s wrestling ability, earmarked Paul for the win:
“Jake Paul, Jake Paul bro- yeah, yeah, you know Woodley’s a wrestler at heart bro. He’s got power and I feel like that’s kind of where he went wrong and uh, he’s- he’s got those double legs man. In an MMA fight bro, Woodley all f***ing day but he’s a wrestler at heart man.”
Stephens elaborated further that Paul possesses a respectable level of talent and is training extensively. He also commented on Paul’s size advantage and the current media hype surrounding him. In conclusion, Stephens stated:
“You don’t want to lose to the Disney kid bro but the Disney kid is good, you know? And he’s- we haven’t seen him in deep waters and we’ve seen Tyron in deep waters you know? So I gotta go 500 bucks Jake Paul.”