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‘His Presence in the Ring Will be Different’- Chael Sonnen Warns Fans Counting Out Tyron Woodley in His Next Fight Against Jake Paul

Published 08/17/2021, 2:56 PM EDT

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Former UFC fighter turned analyst, Chael Sonnen feels Tyron Woodley won’t be an easy opponent for Jake Paul. He detailed out certain aspects of Woodley’s game that were lacking in Paul’s former opponents like former Bellator champion, Ben Askren and Nate Robinson.

In the recent episode of his YouTube series, ‘Beyond the Fight’, ‘The People’s Champ’ detailed how ‘The Chosen One’ could surprise Jake Paul’s fans with his game that led him to climb the top of UFC welterweight division once.

“Tyron moves differently, Tyron moves a lot,” he said. “Tyron also knows full well that he’s getting into a real fight. I don’t know that Ben Askren had that advantage… Tyron does have that head movement… (and) Tyron is not of the mind of all ‘this is just a YouTube guy’ or ‘this is a guy with limited experience.'”

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“Tyron is fully trained. He will be fully prepared. His walk will be different, his presence in the ring will be different, and his strategy will exist. I don’t know that Nate or Ben had a strategy,” he added.

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Sonnen believes Askren and Robinson both had a weakness with their head movements. This allowed Paul to tag them easily. He also believes that Jake has got the power game with flinches and setups. He also plays with from the distance.

The recent record of Tyron Woodley

Woodley (19-7) is one of the best mixed martial artists to represent UFC. The former welterweight champion was a force to reckon with during his stint with the biggest MMA promotion. Despite his career achievements, he would still have concerns about an emerging boxer like Paul. The reason for this being his recent record inside the cage.

He hasn’t had a single victory in his last 4 fights. After defending his title multiple times, he met his match against the reigning champ Kamaru Usman at UFC 235. The Nigerian dominated Woodley and grabbed the belt after picking up a unanimous decision win. This loss opened up the floodgates and he couldn’t recover from thereon.

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He faced a rampaging Gilbert Burns next in last year’s May and lost that via unanimous decision. ‘The Chosen One’ also endured a tough time in a TKO loss against ‘Chaos’ Covington in the Fight Night event later in September. But everything came crashing down for him when he lost his 4th consecutive match against Vicente Luque at UFC 260. That loss sealed the deal for his exit from the promotion after serving 8 years for them.

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It will be interesting to see how Woodley goes about his business in his debut fight against Paul. If he manages a win, he could write a new chapter in his already glittering combat sports career.

What did you make of Sonnen’s assessment on Woodley?

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Written by:

Akshyay Srichandan Mahapatra

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Akshyay Mahapatra is a UFC author for EssentiallySports. He wished to combine his passion for the UFC (that he has been following since 2008) as well as his love for writing. This motivated him to enter the world of combat sports journalism.
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