Notebook: Paul to face Woodley in rematch after Fury pulls out with medical issue

Arum hopes to make Stevenson-Loma; Quick hits; Show and tell

I very much appreciate your interest in this reader-supported newsletter. With the holiday season upon us please consider giving the boxing fan in your life a gift subscription to Fight Freaks Unite!

Jake Paul has a new opponent, but a very familiar one, for his upcoming bout.

Paul will meet Tyron Woodley in a rematch on Dec. 18 (Showtime PPV, 9 p.m. ET) at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, Showtime announced on Monday.

Woodley got the fight when original opponent Tommy Fury, the younger brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, withdrew “due to a medical issue that impacted his training camp,” according to Showtime’s announcement.

Fury’s issue is a “severe chest infection” but one not Covid-19 related, a source involved in the event told Fight Freaks Unite.

“When my team woke me up on Friday to tell me Tommy was pulling out, I told them I’m ready to fight anyone on Dec. 18,” Paul said. “Troy, Trey, Trevor, Travis. I don’t give a damn who it is. So, as I predicted Tommy ‘Fumbles’ and Tyron is there to pick it up, stepping in, and contractually he is getting an extra $500,000 if he knocks me out. First time I outboxed him. This time I’m gonna punish him and leave no doubt.”

Fury won on the undercard of Paul’s first fight with Woodley on Aug. 29 with the expectation they would meet next if they both won. Fury (7-0, 4 KOs), 22, of England, won a four-round decision over Anthony Taylor.

In the main event that night, Paul (4-0, 3 KOs), 24, won an eight-round split decision at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in his hometown of Cleveland over former UFC champion Woodley, who was making his professional boxing debut. The judges scored the fight 78-74 and 77-75 for Paul and 77-75 for Woodley.

Now, it will be Paul-Woodley II, which is an eight-round cruiserweight fight contracted at a catch weight of 192 pounds.

“This is boxing, right? These types of things happen and it’s unfortunate,” Paul said of the opponent change. “But it’s still going to be a massive fight just like it was last time. There are celebrities coming out left and right. Some are even more excited to see me fight Tyron again. There are unanswered questions. That’s why the slogan for the fight is ‘Leave No Doubt’.

After their first fight, Woodley (0-1 in boxing, 19-7-1 in MMA), 39, of St. Louis, demanded a rematch but Paul elected to fight Fury, who would have been the first full-time boxer among his opponents. Paul previously defeated fellow social media personality Ali Eson Gib, retired NBA player Nate Robinson, former MMA star Ben Askren and Woodley, an MMA athlete known for his striking ability.

“I’ve gotten so much better in this training camp,” Paul said. “I’m going to leave no doubt. I want to knock this guy out. We can move on from there but for the Furys, it’s an embarrassment. They said, ‘Oh, we’ll fight Jake with a broken rib. We’ll fight Jake with a chest infection. We’ll fight Jake with our arms tied behind our backs.’ And then when it actually came time to fight me, they pulled out.

“I definitely respect Tyron for stepping in. He has balls. Tyron deserves a lot of credit for stepping in here. But I’ve made a ton of adjustments and he’s going to be fighting a different person Dec. 18. I’m excited to show him and the world that.”

Arum eyes Shakur vs. Loma

Junior lightweight world titleholder Shakur Stevenson would love to unify belts against Top Rank stablemate and fellow titleholder Oscar Valdez in his first fight of 2022, but Top Rank chairman Bob Arum has a different idea and is not in a hurry to make that fight immediately.

Arum’s preference is to first match WBO titleholder Stevenson with former pound-for-pound king and former three-division world champion Vasiliy Lomachenko next, assuming Loma defeats former lightweight titleholder Richard Commey on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.

As for Valdez, who holds the WBC 130-pound belt, Arum would next like to have him square off with Mexican countryman Emanuel Navarrete, who holds the WBO featherweight world title but would move up in weight for the bout.

I spoke to Arum and Stevenson about the situation and wrote about for World Boxing News. Please read that story here: https://www.worldboxingnews.net/2021/12/06/shakur-stevenson-lomachenko/

Sugar Ray Robinson artwork

Most boxing historians rank the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson, the former welterweight and five-time middleweight champion, as best the pound-for-pound fighter ever. The term “pound for pound” was created decades ago so Robinson’s overwhelming talent could be compared to that of the heavyweight champion if they had been the same size. During his heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, Robinson appeared on many covers of The Ring magazine. One of those issues was in the form of a gorgeous Stanley Weston painting used on the cover of the August 1947 issue. Noted art collector Ingo Wegerich owns the original painting and he asked me to write a short bio on Robinson to go along with photos of the painting on his website. You can take a look at this tremendous piece of art here: https://tinyurl.com/9rfzbf4v

Quick hits

Although there is no done deal, plans are in the works for unified junior middleweight titlist Jermell Charlo and titleholder Brian Castano to meet in a rematch for the undisputed title on Feb. 26 at the Toyota Center in Charlo’s hometown of Houston. Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs), 31, and Castano (17-0-2, 12 KOs), 32, of Argentina, met for the undisputed crown on July 17 in a Showtime-televised main event in San Antonio, where they fought to a disputed draw that most felt Castano had won. The judges had it 114-114, 117-111 Charlo and 114-113 Castano.

---

Australian junior bantamweight contender Andrew Moloney’s return against former flyweight world title challenger Froilan Saludar (32-4-1, 22 KOs), 32, of the Philippines, has been moved. It was originally schedule for Thursday in Newcastle, Australia, but has been moved to Dec. 21 in Sydney for Covid-19 related reasons. The fight will be the first for Maloney (21-2, 14 KOs), 30, since finishing his trilogy with WBA regular titlist Joshua Franco by losing a unanimous decision on Aug. 14 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Maloney is looking to regroup after going 0-2 with a no contest in three consecutive fights against Franco.

Show and tell

When legendary HBO analyst Larry Merchant dreamed up with the idea of Manny Pacquiao fighting Oscar De La Hoya, an idea that became public after he told me about it during one of our regular boxing phone calls and I wrote a column about it a few days later, there was wide outrage. It was viewed as a death match, a fight that the much bigger De La Hoya would win by easy destruction over the much smaller Pacquiao. Although the fight did not happen next, Merchant’s idea incubated for about a year and then the fight was made. De La Hoya had lost a competitive decision to Floyd Mayweather in a junior middleweight title fight and then did not look sharp in a decision win over the much smaller Steve Forbes. Pacquiao had moved up from junior lightweight to stop David Diaz for a lightweight title and would be moving up two divisions to welterweight to face De La Hoya. As a tip of the hat to Merchant’s vision, the fight was the titled “The Dream Match.”

Yes, the fight was a one-sided destruction as most expected, but it wasn’t Pacquiao who got destroyed. Shockingly, it was De La Hoya as Pacquiao laid a massive beating on the Golden Boy. As Merchant said near the end of the fight on the HBO PPV broadcast, “Death by a thousand left hands.” Finally, after taking so much punishment, the fight was stopped in De La Hoya’s corner after the eighth round. De La Hoya would retire soon after the fight and Pacquiao was launched to mega stardom. That historic fight took place on Dec. 6, 2008 — 13 years ago on Monday. Here are just two of the many items from the bout in my collection: my ringside credential and a cool scorecard on sturdy paper that was handed out to those in attendance at the MGM Grand on fight night. Take a look at that scorecard’s bout listing for all of the future stars who were on the undercard.

Photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime

---

A quick note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: If you have upgraded to a paid subscription, thank you! If you have not, please consider doing so to receive the most content. A paid subscription is your way of keeping this reader-supported newsletter going and supporting independent journalism. I hope you see value in getting timely and accurate news and information, and (hopefully) entertaining commentary and audio content, delivered directly to your inbox. You don’t have to look for boxing news and commentary, it comes to you. Please support independent boxing journalism.

I am beholden to no network, promoter, manager, sanctioning body or fighter. If you have read my work at all during the past 20-plus years I’ve covered professional boxing you know that I keep it real and that will not change. Thank you and I hope you enjoy.

To upgrade your subscription please go here: https://danrafael.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you so much for your support of Fight Freaks Unite!

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danrafael1/

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanRafael1

Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanRafaelBoxing