Jake Paul scored a sixth-round knockout of Mike Perry to officially clear the way for his showdown against Mike Tyson in November, but the criticism surrounding that fight has only multiplied in recent days.
From the moment the bout was announced, Paul was scrutinized for even contemplating a fight against Tyson, who just recently celebrated his 58th birthday. In his prime, Tyson was one of the most ferocious and feared fighters on the planet, but his best days are long since behind him, and his last win came all the way back in 2003 when he defeated Clifford Etienne by knockout.
While Paul is far from a top-level boxer, he’s 27 years old with a 10-1 record and there’s no doubt he packs a serious punch, given the seven knockout wins on his résumé.
For all the ways the fight may seem like a bad idea, former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, who has spent more time in the ring with Paul than anyone, promises that’s not the case.
“I’m a fan of the fight,” Woodley said on The Fighter vs. The Writer podcast. “Mike Tyson is 60, but are you trying to see Mike Tyson? So he’s still got the same fear in your heart that he had a long time ago.”
In many ways, Woodley expected to see a bit of a preview of the Tyson fight when he called Paul’s win over Perry this past weekend as part of the broadcast team. Knowing that Perry was the shorter, smaller fighter, Woodley felt the BKFC superstar would employ a strategy similar to what Tyson used throughout his career to deal with size disadvantages.
But ultimately Perry just couldn’t employ the same tactics as Tyson, and Woodley says that’s what really cost him the fight.
“I know Mike has been training that style before he even got to the UFC,” Woodley said. “I watched all his videos. I hear him talking about the Mike Tyson peekaboo style. What that means, as the person is punching, you’re going to slip in and cover ground. You’re going to buy real estate. So off of a jab, off of a cross, if you are good enough to see it and slip it, you have to be good enough to step inside as well. Because Mike Tyson was a lot shorter than a lot of his other opponents and most of his punches came from hooking punches. Mike Perry dot com, right? So Mike Perry didn’t slip and get inside. He didn’t slip hardly at all anyways. He was getting hit with jabs and it was kind of like a rock ‘em, sock ‘em.
“Mike Perry had his hands very low. He definitely didn’t slip and step inside. He got hit with jabs and then he didn’t have an answer for the jab.”
Woodley doesn’t believe Tyson faces those same problems because his coaches basically invented that style of fighting, which Tyson employed throughout his career.
While that may not get Tyson any wins against the best heavyweights in boxing today, it’s still enough to help him deal with a far less experienced opponent like Paul.
“[Tyson] did thousands, tens of thousands of the same drill,” Woodley said. “We watched the way Cus D’Amato trained him. He was a trained machine of his specific body type, of his specific height, his specific attributes, especially the power, and they developed a style for him specifically. They basically engineered a style that didn’t exist before him. Even the way he had his hands [at his chin]. He wasn’t [up high on the head]. He was [on the chin] because he would take a shot and he’s going to take it by the forehead. He’s not going to get knocked out by a forehead punch. Then when he slipped off line, guess what happens? He’s in that distance that Perry needed to be in.
“But people watch it and just try to do it, but when you don’t do the drills, you’re missing steps, you’re missing the small techniques. You’re missing the minimal things that make it a major thing when you trying to do it in real time. Mike Tyson has not forgotten that.”
If Tyson can tap back into those skills and comes out throwing with the same kind of vicious power that made him such a terrifying opponent early in his career, Woodley feels like Paul could be in serious trouble.
“If [Tyson] has a flashback of a moment of a past fight, and he does that shit to Jake, it’s a wrap,” Woodley said. “So that’s the fight. The age is the only reason why Paul even has a chance. That’s why it’s kind of an even fight. [Paul’s] age, youth, and ability to just have a screw loose, and Mike’s experience, 60 pro fights, world titles against killers, and just being probably the most feared combat competitor ever.
“Jon Jones is the best MMA fighter, but walking up and down the street, he may sing to you, he may not scare you. Mike Tyson was scary with f*cking tigers and shit. So yeah, that’s a good fight.”
Still, Woodley understands why some fans, fighters, and boxing experts just aren’t going to jive with Paul taking on a 58-year-old version of Tyson, but he expects opinions to change on fight night. He obviously knows Paul can win, but Woodley promises that counting out Tyson comes at your own peril.
“I still think Mike Tyson has enough in him to knock Jake out,” Woodley said. “Could Jake win? Yeah, Jake would have to fight Mike Tyson the same way he fought Mike Perry. Jab high, jab low, move. Because you remember, Mike Tyson has his hands right [by his chin]. He’s not going to change that for this fight. So when you jab right in the middle of these two gloves, at the very minimum it’s going to push Mike back. Pushing him back keeps him out of that range that [Tyson] needs to get into.
“If Jake fights him that way and maybe lands some good body jabs, body punches, and starts to deplete him, get him frustrated, get him swinging crazy, he could maybe tire him out and then look in the later rounds to try and finish it off. That’s the game plan and that’s the only way I see Jake beating Mike. I see a lot of different ways of Mike beating Jake.”
