Hey, remember when Jake Paul was going to box Tyron Woodley on August 28th? Well move that back one day to Sunday night — the penultimate Sunday before the start of NFL season — and you’ve got yourself a new date and a newly announced location!
This eight-round, professional boxing match will be held at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Paul’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. The pay-per-view event will be promoted by Jake’s Most Valuable Promotions and is the first of his multi-fight deal with Showtime.
Paul (3-0, 3 KOs) has gone from social media star to one of the biggest draws in prizefighting. I didn’t say most skilled, but he’s got the prize in prizefighting down pat. His last two fights were high-profile knockouts of former NBA player Nate Robinson and ex-Bellator and ONE champion and former UFC fighter Ben Askren.
Woodley (19-7-1 MMA) is making his pro boxing debut after ending his UFC career on a four-fight losing streak. He won the welterweight title from Robbie Lawler back in 2016 and successfully defended his belt against Stephen Thompson, Demian Maia, and Darren Till before losing to Kamaru Usman. His final UFC fight saw him lose by submission for the first time against Vicente Luque.
While Woodley’s MMA career was contested at 170 lbs, this bout with Paul will be a 190 lbs catchweight, or essentially a cruiserweight fight in boxing.
The first undercard fight confirmed is women’s boxing champion Amanda Serrano (40-1-1, 30 KOs) defending her featherweight (126 lbs) belts versus WBC super bantamweight (122 lbs) champion Yamileth Mercado (18-2, 5 KOs) of Mexico. This will be Mercado’s US debut and it’ll be another chapter in the Mexico vs. Puerto Rico boxing rivalry, but she’s going up against one of the hardest hitting women’s boxers in the world.
Tickets go on sale July 22nd. Details on the cost to purchase the PPV have not been revealed but there is a press conference set for July 13th and obviously words will be said and faces will be close to other faces.
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