Mike Perry is one of the few credentialed people to have experience with Jake Paul inside the boxing ring. He says that Jake gave him more trouble than a fellow UFC fighter.
Although his career has had highs and lows, there’s no denying the fact that Perry is more than deserving of his spot in the UFC welterweight division. He has enough wins over top elite competition to prove that he is one of the best in the world.
That was one of the things that factored into Jake Paul’s decision to have Mike join him in the training room, for some sparring sessions before his bout with Ben Askren. The results of these sparring sessions are highly contested, with both men claiming to have gotten the better of the other in training.
Mike Perry Says Darren Till Was Easier
Another famous sparring story that Mike Perry has, comes from the spa/spar incident between he and Darren Till. This is only once small part of one of MMA’s most entertaining rivalries, which led to the two training together, as well as talking smack about one another.
As much as you might think that sparring with a UFC contender was more difficult than sparring a YouTube boxer with a 3-0 record, this is apparently not the case for Mike. Speaking in a recent interview, he said that Darren was an easier opponent to spar than Jake was.
“Jake Paul was a better spar than Till but that was an awkward situation with the gloves and s—t. Definitely though,” Perry said.
“(Paul was good) about making you think he’s going to engage, then he doesn’t. He’s got long reach, and he’s got different tricks. He taught me something.
“The first round he was doing something, it wasn’t doing damage but it was keeping him at bay, so that I couldn’t really get to him. I started working around that, and it took a couple rounds to get around it, but once we got to the fourth round I was taking over.”
Thoughts On Paul vs Woodley
That being said, Jake Paul has now moved on for a bout against former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. Although the two never fought, this is the division that Mike Perry has fought in for the majority of his UFC career.
Based on his experience with Jake, Mike believes that Woodley has more avenues to victory in this matchup. Furthermore, he thinks the only way that Jake will be able to win, is by scoring a decision.
“I mean, T-Woodley can definitely throw hands a lot better than Ben Askren, that’s what I know for a fact. We’ve seen T-Wood falter against some really high caliber, top five fighters recently, but Jake does not have those people’s finishing power, even though it’s MMA and boxing. He doesn’t have that killer instinct. He thinks he wants to have it, but he ain’t got it,” Perry said.
“Look, I can see Jake taking a decision, that’s it. I don’t see him finishing Woodley… I see Woodley finishing it, but I can see Woodley getting the decision too. I don’t see Jake getting the finish. He’ll hit (Woodley) and he’ll hurt him, but there’s nothing that’s coming after. He’s not coming to get the finish. The way he hit Ben, Ben looked like he never took. real punch before in his life. T-Woodley has.”
What do you make of this assessment from Mike Perry? Who wins between Tyron Woodley and Jake Paul?
