JAKE PAUL has been secretly putting in the championship rounds in his private Caribbean island training camp.
The YouTube sensation, for the second fight in a row, has prepared to fight ex-UFC champion Tyron Woodley in Puerto Rico.
He started his camp in early September, believing he was facing online rival Tommy Fury.
But after Fury, 22, pulled out with a broken rib, Woodley, 39, filled in as a replacement, only four months after losing to Paul.
The social media star knew the show must go on, with undercard talent also expecting a payday right before Christmas.
Plus, it meant the money spent on camp costs, rounds of sparring banked and months of gruelling training did not go to waste.
Here, SunSport takes an exclusive look inside Paul’s preparations for Woodley, ahead of the anticipated rematch in Florida over the weekend.
Trainer BJ Flores said: “Jake prepares like it’s a world championship fight.
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“When a lot of heavyweight champions go into title fights, they spar between 150-200 rounds.
“Jake’s right at the same level, he’s taking it very, very seriously. The last fight, he came in with a bit of an injury.
“He had a hyperextended elbow against Tyron, he went eight rounds, we went back to the drawing board, made some adjustments and we’re ready to rock and roll.”
In Paul’s first three fights, he beat YouTuber ‘AnEsonGib’, ex-NBA star Nate Robinson, 37, and retired UFC welterweight Ben Askren, also 37.
But his biggest win to date was against Woodley over eight rounds in front of a home crowd in Cleveland.
It was the first time he was ever taken the distance – or past round two – and has only helped boost Paul’s confidence and boxing ego even more.
Flores said: “His work ethic has been outstanding. He’s always worked really hard, he’s really focussed and locked in now.
“And I think going eight rounds last time was a real wake-up call for him, he’s got a good chip on his shoulder.
“Everyday he wakes up ready to work now and it’s just a really good situation to be in as a trainer because he comes in very hungry every single day.
“He’s very eager and we’ve added a couple of wrinkles, a couple of things that he can do in the ring and it’s really going to show on Saturday night.”
Paul, a former Disney Channel actor, has conducted training camps in California, Las Vegas and Miami.
All can be considered boxing breeding grounds that offer state-of-that-art training faculties and easy sparring access.
But it can also bring unwelcomed distractions for a 24-year-old celebrity like Paul.
So moving over 3,000 miles away from LA to sunny Puerto Rico allows the cruiserweight boxer to train incognito.
Flores said: “It’s tough to get people out here for sparring but look, we’ve got it all in place.
“We have a professional travel team, a separate house for sparring partners, an entire facility set up here, a gym.
“We’re firing on all cylinders, to be honest with you, we’re in a really good spot. We’ve got all the equipment and everything we need.
“It’s not as much of a distortion as you might think, maybe we’re not in a hotbed city like Las Vegas or like that.
“But Jake has a different life here. There’s requirements that will help make his training easier and it’s isolation.
“People know who Jake is, he’s very famous, a lot of people recognise Jake when we’re in the States so it’s nice to be out in the middle of nowhere, where no one recognises him.
“He’s able to focus, he’s able to train and we’re able to get a lot of good stuff done.”
Paul been sparring the likes of Richard Rivera, 31, Muhsin Cason, 28, and Nikita Ababiy, 23, who have a combined record of 40-0, in recent months.
And he even welcomed in former cruiserweight world champion Steve Cunningham, 45, the man who dropped but lost to Tyson Fury, 33, in 2013.
Flores said: “We’ve had a lot of guys, world champions, Steve Cunningham out here, we’ve had Richard Rivera, who is 20-0 and one of the top cruiserweights in the country.
“We’ve had Muhsin Cason, 10-0 win eight knockouts, we had Nikita Ababiy, who is 10-0, we’ve had a lot of good guys out here.
“The sparring ranges anywhere from five rounds one day, to eight-ten another day. He rotates guys in.”
Having Cunningham in camp was one way of getting into the mind of the Fury family.
But after 2019 Love Islander Tommy pulled out, it left Flores & Co focussing once more on Woodley, a man they now know all about.
The trainer said: “Jake’s in shape, he’s ready to go, so Tyron better be ready. Tommy would have had his hands full.
“I think Tyron is a tougher fight that Tommy, he’s got more experience, more pedigree, more toughness, he punches harder, he’s way physically stronger.
“I think Tyron is a tougher fight than Tommy. We were ready for Tommy, obviously, that’s not happening anymore, so we’re ready for Tyron.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
