Why Is Jake Paul Favored Over Tyron Woodley?

  • Jake Paul, a boxer with three professional wins to his name, has -200 odds to beat Tyron Woodley.
  • Paul is fresh off of a victory over Ben Askren, a UFC veteran known for his mediocre stand-up game.

LAS VEGAS - Jake Paul is set to take on another foray into the world of boxing and mixed martial arts on Sunday as he is set to fight former UFC champion Tyron Woodley.

Paul’s stoppage of Ben Askren, another former UFC fighter, brought him some credibility as a boxer. In fact, he’s favored over Woodley, who was never regarded as an elite boxer in the UFC, but was certainly more dangerous with his hands than Askren ever was.

Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley Betting Odds

  • Jake Paul -200
  • Tyron Woodley +160

It’s intriguing that Woodley is the underdog in this matchup; however, sportsbooks offering odds on the Paul-Woodley fight appear to be there in result of Paul’s knockout victory over Askren, along with the unique learning curve of boxing.

But why else is Jake Paul favored among sportsbooks?

The Experience Gap

Woodley may be a former UFC Champion, but training for mixed martial arts (MMA) is not the same as training for boxing, even if some of these skills overlap. Paul, meanwhile, has been training in boxing for more than three years now, with his first amateur fight coming in 2018.

This gap between the two was the crux of a confrontation between Woodley and J’Leon Love, a professional boxer and one of Paul’s cornermen at the Paul-Askren fight.

Love repeatedly told Woodley that he didn’t know how to fight as a boxer, and it seems that online sportsbooks agree with his assessment.

Jake Paul’s Fanbase And Credibility

It’s hard to ignore the weight that fanbases put on sportsbooks. When gauging fights between incredibly popular figures, it is often good to consider that oversized fanbases could be the reason behind an odds shift.

Conor McGregor, for example, was a -275 favorite over Dustin Poirier in their second matchup, in which he was dominated, and his fanbase could have been a big part of the reason sportsbooks favored him in the first place.

Paul was favored over Askren - which turned out to be correct - but he’s more favored over Woodley than he was over Askren. This could be because the Askren win bought him credibility as a fighter with online gambling fans, even though Askren was in the top five of fighters with the worst hands in the UFC.

Still, Paul was -155 to beat Askren, while he's -200 over Woodley, who has seven KO/TKO wins in the UFC.

The Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley match will take place on Sunday, beginning at 7 p.m. ET via Showtime PPV outlets.