Jake Paul has claimed he was injured heading into his fight with Tyron Woodley.
The YouTube star turned professional boxer impressively improved his record to 4-0 in what was billed as the toughest test of his young career.
Paul survived some scary moments to outbox the former UFC welterweight champion over eight rounds and pick up a deserved decision win.
The 24-year-old’s biggest win to date is even more impressive when you consider the fact he went into the fight with an injured elbow.
“There was something to do with my legs and the energy, I felt like drained of energy. Going into the fight, no one even knows this but I hyperextended my elbow like seven days or eight days before the fight in sparring, bad,” Paul said on the Full Send Podcast. “Went into the fight with an injured elbow, was doing therapy the whole week leading up to it. In the third round, I re-hyperextended it and in the fight, you have so much adrenaline you are kind of like I don’t really care, but even this morning I wake up, however many days later it is, I’m like ‘bro this s**t hurts right now.’ Maybe the crowd, too, they were ready.”
Paul of proud of his victory over such an accomplished fighter but insists in terms of his performance, he could’ve done better.
“I’m very hard on myself because there is always room for improvement. If I was sitting here being like ‘oh, I did so good, I beat a Hall of Famer,’ I did those things,” Paul said. “He’s a great fighter, and he’s tough, that’s what I really realized in there, he’s a veteran and didn’t want to lose. He was coming in with so much heart, so much power. But, I didn’t do as good as I normally do in sparring sessions. In my other fights, I felt really jumpy, really bouncy, my legs fell good in my other fights. This one, for some reason, where is this extra spunk, I don’t feel it right now, I don’t have it right now.
“I give myself a B-minus maybe. For what I did, this guy has been boxing since I was 12-years-old when I was in seventh grade dwindling my thumbs in science class this guy was winning world championships,” Paul continued. “For me to only be doing this for three years and outbox him for basically every round, I’m proud of that but I know I could’ve done better. There were a lot of things in sparring I didn’t do live.” (Transcribed by BJPENN.com)
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