This past weekend, former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley boxed former Disney Channel star Jake Paul in an 8-round cruiserweight fight that promised to be one of the biggest combat sports events of the year. Woodley ended up losing a split decision to Paul however, a few days removed from the event, Woodley is in excellent spirits because according to “The Chosen One,” the Pay-Per-View numbers for the fight are trending through the roof.

“The Pay-Per-View is doing some sh*t right now, I promise you. Pay-Per-View is doing some sh*t right now,” Woodley said on his Instagram Live (h/t FightHype). “I told you. You motherf*ckers laughed at me. Go back to my Instagram, I said this will be the biggest Pay-Per-View of the year. I said that. N*ggas laughed at me. They f*cking put clown emojis, ‘Haha, what about this? It’s gonna be bigger than that, bwahaha!’ F*cking jokes on you. I don’t know where it’s at right now but they’re still counting. That’s sh*t’s still running up. So I want to thank everybody for buying it, I want to thank everybody for giving a f*ck, I want to thank the promotion for putting the fight together. I’m excited because part two is gonna be crazier.

“I kept saying, this is a real fight. It’s not the Tik-Tok vs. the f*cking coin-flipper. This is two real motherf*ckers who both punch hard, both got a chin, a lot of bullsh*t talk, so guess what, we’re gonna run it back and when we do, we’re going for the record the next time. We are right now right underneath Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul for Pay-Per-View and still counting. If we go over that number, it’s going to be the fifth-highest Pay-Per-View in the history of Pay-Per-View. And we sold out the arena, for all those people that said ‘You not as raw! You don’t know how to move the needle!’”

Earlier this year, Jake Paul’s older brother Logan boxed Floyd Mayweather Jr. in an exhibition bout that generated a reported 1 million PPV buys. If Paul-Woodley exceeds that number it would be an unqualified success, however, that would still put it well short of fifth-largest PPV in history, in fact, it wouldn’t necessarily make it the largest selling PPV of the year. Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier’s two fights this year generated a reported 1.6 million and 1.8 million buys respectively. Still, selling over a million PPV buys is nothing to sneeze at, especially when Woodley is seeing more money from this, even with a loss, than any fight in his MMA career.

“Am I happy I lost the fight? No, not at all,” Woodley said. “But at the end of the day, the judges said I lost the fight but when I look at the blessings of it and the structure of it, it’s not set up like MMA where we go out there and we fight our f*cking hearts out and we lose or a judge says it didn’t happen or an illegal strike or anything that can cause you not to come away with a W, even if it’s a tie or a No Contest, both of y’all are getting half of y’all money. There’s no win bonus unless somebody wins. Y’all both trained hard, fought hard, and they couldn’t figure it out so y’all both go home with only half your money.... So I’m blessed that no matter what the judges said, my check says the same sh*t.”

Immediately following the bout, Woodley argued that he deserved to get the decision and called for another bout with Paul. Paul was not particularly interested in running it back though, so whenever the final PPV numbers come in, if they do impress like Woodley is suggesting, that could help him in his efforts to secure a rematch. Even if Paul doesn’t want to dance a second time though, it sounds like Woodley is planning to stay with boxing for the foreseeable future.

“I’m excited. I’m excited about the future, I’m excited about boxing,” Woodley said.
“Showtime, thank you, we had a nice little conversation in the back, (Stephen) Espinoza, you know what it was. I wanted to earn my keep and I’ll do better next time. This time I did great. I showed people I’m really serious about it. Next time my volume is going to increase on punching. It was just my first boxing training camp.”

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VIDEO STEW

The MMA Hour.

Top finishes from UFC Vegas 36 fighters.

Meet Paddy Pimblett before his UFC debut.

Laura Sanko on TMZ Sports.

Doctor discussing Conor McGregor’s recovery process.

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LISTEN UP

Heavy Hands. Breaking down the big fights at UFC Vegas 36.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Vicious trash talk.

Cyborg weighing in.

Up on his own two feet.

This fit is spectacular.

Johnny Walker is now blond.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Felicia Spencer (8-3) vs. Leah Letson (5-1); UFC Fight Night, Nov. 13.

Charles Oliveira (31-8) vs. Dustin Poirier (28-6); UFC 269, Dec. 11.

Maycee Barber (9-2) vs. Montana De La Rosa (12-6-1); UFC 269, Dec. 11.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

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EXIT POLL

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