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Jake Paul Slams Jorge Masvidal for Saying Tyron Woodley Will 'Knock Him the F--k Out'
August 26, 2021
Jake Paul fired back at UFC star Jorge Masvidal on Wednesday after Masvidal predicted Tyron Woodley will knock Paul out in their boxing match Sunday in Cleveland.
Appearing last week on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani (h/t ESPN's Marc Raimondi), Masvidal said:
"Not to diss Jake, but Woodley can throw them hands. Ben Askren never could. You've got a guy that can fight and sling fists when it's time. Woodley could have made his money grappling, which he did. He was good enough of an athlete, and he was good enough of an athlete to make money with his hands, to knock people the f--k out.
"I know Jake's never been in there with a guy like that, that's explosive, that's a good athlete, and has a ton of experience over him. If Jake wins, f--king wow. My hat's off to him. I was wrong. I don't know s--t about fighting, right? But chances are Woodley's going to knock him the f--k out."
Masvidal trained with Paul leading up to his fight against Askren in April, which Paul won by technical knockout to improve to 3-0 in his professional boxing career.
Askren and Masvidal were former UFC rivals, as Masvidal beat Askren at UFC 239 in 2019 when he knocked him out in five seconds, which is the fastest knockout in UFC history.
The dynamic is different with Masvidal and Woodley, as they are both represented by First Round Management and have been part of American Top Team, which Paul alluded to:
"He has the same manager as Woodley. And the guy is kind of an airhead. Let's be honest. Masvidal is not smart. Does anyone here listen to a Masvidal interview and go, 'Wow, that guy is intellectual and he's a smart guy and the way he talks, he's very well-spoken.' He's a street fighter, gangster who got knocked the f--k out in his last fight, so maybe he's losing a few brain cells."
Masvidal, who is 35-15 in his MMA career, has lost back-to-back fights to UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. At UFC 261 in April, Usman knocked Masvidal out in the second round.
Paul expressed confusion regarding Masvidal's prediction for his fight against Woodley, claiming that it was Masvidal who reached out to him to train and film content:
"One moment, he's my friend. Texted me like saying, 'Yo, let's train. Yo, let's do a video together. Yo, can you come to my bakery down the street, I want to do a little thing with you.' And then, oh snap, all of a sudden he wants to switch up. Cool. That's not how I was raised. Not here in Ohio. If I'm your friend, I'm your friend."
Masvidal offered the following response Wednesday night on Twitter:
Paul added during Wednesday's press conference that he would "love" to fight Masvidal in the future and believes it "could very, very much so happen."
First, Paul must get through what should be by far the biggest test of his young boxing career to date against Woodley.
Appearing Thursday on the Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland, Paul expressed supreme confidence in his ability to beat Woodley, saying: "[Tyron's] only hope for this fight to win is to land that one lucky shot. .... He's going to be a fish out of water."
The 39-year-old Woodley is 19-7-1 in an MMA career that includes stints in Strikeforce and the UFC. He beat Robbie Lawler for the UFC welterweight title in 2016 and successfully defended it four times before dropping it to Usman in 2019.
That was the start of a four-fight losing streak for Woodley, who has lost to Usman, Gilbert Burns, Colby Covington and Vicente Luque in his past four outings.
Paul is already looking ahead to a potential fight with Masvidal, but Woodley's pedigree suggests he will be a much more difficult opponent for Paul than Askren, former NBA guard Nate Robinson and YouTuber AnEsonGib were previously.