Tyron Woodley claims Jake Paul is backing out of an agreed upon rematch.
Tyron Woodley is now an 0-1 boxer, having fallen to Jake Paul via split decision this weekend. However, Woodley is eager to even his record and is demanding a rematch with the infamous influencer.
Woodley, a former UFC welterweight champion, appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani yesterday. During that appearance he claimed that Paul had agreed to a rematch, but that ‘The Problem Child’ was now “backing out”.
“He’s trying to back out of it,” said Woodley (ht MMA Fighting). “He’s being a coward. I’m calling you out: You’re being a coward.”
Woodley went on to say that he is willing to go through with the tattoo bet he made with Paul, which will see him get “I love Jake” permanently inked somewhere on his body. And ‘The Chosen One’ said he would like Paul to match this commitment by following through with a rematch.
“I’m willing to be a man and honor my end of the deal,” said Woodley. “He made a new deal, since he’s the one that makes the bets. Now the bet blew up in your face. Let’s do it. I’m willing and I will. If I’ve got to get my own tattoo artist, I think I’m sliding to L.A., let’s get it cracking. But I need to see some paperwork, because him and his manager are starting to get real [shady]. He told me in there, he said, ‘Tyron, I give you my word.’ This is what [Paul representative] Nakisa [Bidarian] told me, ‘Tyron, I give you my word.’ And he’s been solid — he’s never told me one thing and not been solid about it. I got a lot of love for Nakisa. He said, ‘If you get the tattoo tonight, we’ll give you the rematch.’ And I said, ‘Bet. Let’s run it.’”
Aside from wanting to even the score with Paul, there’s another reason Woodley would likely want to run it back. Earlier today it was revealed that Woodley received a $2 million purse to fight Paul. It is expected that Woodley’s payday will increase significantly when his share of the pay-per-view revenue is calculated.
It has been previously estimated that Woodley’s combined purses, bonuses and endorsement money from 16 UFC appearances equals less than $5 million.