Tyron Woodley vs Jake Paul Boxing Picks, Odds, Predictions 8/29/21

Jake Paul and Tyron Woodley fight Sunday in a boxing match at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Paul enters this fight with a 3-0 record that includes three knockouts. Woodley will make his boxing debut, but he racked up a 19-7-1 record in MMA.

Paul will fight for the second time this year, and he is coming off an April win over Ben Askren. Paul is 24 years old, stands at 6’1” with a 76-inch reach and an orthodox stance. Paul is coming off a first round knockout where he dropped his opponent easily and had some questioning if the fight was staged. Paul has now won two of his three fights in the first round. Paul is a popular Youtuber and Internet personality who appears to be taking the sport of boxing seriously. He obviously has a lot of work to do from a technique standpoint, as he has been sloppy at times and keeps himself open. Paul can be inaccurate with his shots and look for the knockout a little too much, but so far his style has worked. Paul deserves credit for what he’s done up to this point, especially with the lack of experience, but there’s still work to be done before he starts calling out actual seasoned fighters. With that said, Paul does let his hands go and puts some legit pop behind his shots. When Paul lands cleanly, he’s shown he can hurt his opponents, for what it’s worth. For a celebrity, you can certainly do a lot worse than what Paul shown up to this point. This will be Paul’s first career fight in Cleveland, his birthplace. 

Woodley has lost his last four fights and is coming off a March loss to Vicente Luque. During his MMA career, Woodley averages 2.36 significant strikes per minute with an accuracy percentage of 48 percent. Woodley also averaged 1.06 takedowns with an accuracy percentage of 40 percent. Woodley is 39 years old, stands at 5’9”, has a 74-inch reach and an orthodox stance. Woodley comes from a wrestling background where he was a two-time All-American, and he later earned a black belt in BJJ. However, Woodley has seven career knockouts and has more than held his own standing up. Just look at what Woodley did against Robbie Lawler, Josh Koscheck and Jay Hieron to get an idea of how he’ll hold up from a boxing stand point. Woodley is also training with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Eric Brown, one of the best boxers ever and somebody who worked with Manny Pacquiao and James Toney. This will be Woodley’s first career fight in Cleveland.

You can understand why Paul is the favorite, as he has the more pure boxing experience, he’s the bigger fighter and he’s dropping guys left and right. With that said, Woodley is easily the best fighter Paul has faced up to this point, and he has far and away better standup than Askren. Woodley is quite comfortable on his feet, he has good footwork and he has more than enough power to make Paul think twice about being reckless. The value is on Woodley and the plus money, as this is the first time Paul is facing a respectable fighter on the feet.

Give me Woodley.