Tyron Woodley will get his wish after all and get another crack at Jake Paul in less than two weeks.
Tyron Woodley will get his wish after all.
Tommy Fury has withdrawn from his boxing match with Jake Paul, who will now rematch Woodley on Dec. 18 in an eight-round fight at Amelie Arena in Tampa, Fla., on Showtime pay-per-view. Social media personality Keemstar was first to report the news overnight, which Paul and Woodley later announced Monday morning on Instagram.
Fury revealed the reason for his withdrawal in a statement (via talkSPORT.com’s Michael Benson).
“I am absolutely heartbroken that I have been forced to withdraw from my fight with Jake Paul due to a bacterial chest infection and broken rib,” Fury said. “I really do hope we can get this fight rescheduled in the new year. I want this fight to still happen more than anything.”
Paul spoke on the situation in a video posted to Twitter.
“It is official: Tommy Fury is boxing’s biggest b*tch,” Paul said. “He has pulled out of the fight. The Furys have pulled out of the fight due to a ‘medical condition.’ Who knows what the f*ck is going on in that camp? … I couldn’t believe the news at first. It still doesn’t even seem real. He fumbled the biggest bag of his life. Now he will be watching at home, paying me $60 instead of getting paid millions of dollars to fight me. I’ve fought with a broken nose, I’ve fought sick, get the f*ck over it. This is boxing. It’s official: He was scared, I think the sh*t talk got to him. That’s the bad news.
“The good news is that Mr. Tyron Woodley, we called him up and we were like, ‘Hey, do you want to take the fight?’ He has been training. He goes, ‘Sure, I’ll take the fight, let’s do the rematch, run it back.’ I’m giving him $500,000 extra if he can knock me out. Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley 2: ‘Leave No Doubt.’ I didn’t knock him out the first time. I’m coming back, and I’m getting the crazy W, the crazy highlight-reel knockout. The show must go on.”
Tommy Fury has pulled out of the fight due to a “medical condition” and Tyron Woodley is stepping in for December 18th for the official rematch. pic.twitter.com/t1OFVQQBBt
— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) December 6, 2021
Paul (4-0) edged out Woodley (0-1) by split decision this past August, and the former UFC welterweight champion has campaigned for a rematch ever since. Calls to run it back only grew louder from Woodley after he followed through on a pre-fight bet by getting Paul’s name tattooed on his middle finger for losing to him. Paul initially indicated that he’d be willing to rematch Woodley if he got the tattoo, and they shook on it in the ring, but Paul instead opted to face Fury, the brother of heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury.
But now that Fury is out, Paul will get into the ring with the man who gave him his toughest test to date. Although Paul was the busier fighter, Woodley was able to rock him in Round 4, and the YouTuber-turned-boxer went the distance for the first time.
Woodley, 39, hasn’t won a fight since his last UFC welterweight title defense against Darren Till on Sept. 8, 2018. He departed the UFC earlier this year after a four-fight losing streak to Kamaru Usman, Gilbert Burns, Colby Covington, and Vicente Luque, the final two being stoppages.
