CLEVELAND – Tyron Woodley wouldn’t buy what he considered an absurd charade of overconfidence Thursday.

The former UFC welterweight champion thinks Jake Paul’s cockiness is overcompensation for nervousness because Paul realizes he finally is in a real fight. Woodley is 39 and finished his UFC career on a four-fight losing streak, yet he is convinced that he’ll expose Paul as a fraud in their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event Sunday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Handicappers have installed Paul as approximately a 2-1 favorite in advance of their eight-round cruiserweight fight. Neither fighter can come in at more than their contracted catch weight of 190 pounds when they step on the Ohio Athletic Commission’s scale Saturday at KeyState Theater in downtown Cleveland.

Three days before their fight, Woodley went after an antagonistic Paul during their final press conference at the Hilton hotel for what Woodley views as embarrassing behavior while trying to sell their fight.

“Yeah, I’m almost falling asleep over here because it’s kinda disgusting,” Woodley said. “It’s kinda disgusting. It’s kinda disgusting. It’s kinda disgusting how much of a clown people feel they have to be to be recognized. It’s disgusting how much clout people have to chase. And when you really look into what the word clout means, it’s the appearance of authenticity. It’s appearance that you’re the real deal. It’s appearance that you really about that action. But I’m really like that.

“At the end of the day, walking around, looking foolish – where the f---- is your shirt at, number one? Number two, you know, you can say what you wanna say, but you do what you think you’re supposed to do, based upon what we’ve done. When I say we, I say fighters. Jumping up on the ring and screaming and yelling and doing the memes, and all this other stuff, the whole money thing, the whole bling thing, that’s all to build a fight. But we here. I ain’t got sh!t to say. You gettin’ hurt on Sunday, in a way you ain’t never felt.”

Woodley, of Ferguson, Missouri, feels Paul’s training team, headed by former cruiserweight contender BJ Flores, has enabled Paul to build a false sense of confidence while tearing through a very low level of opposition. The 24-year-old Paul (3-0, 3 KOs) – an actor and popular content creator on YouTube before beginning his boxing career – has quickly knocked out YouTube rival Ali Eson Gib, former NBA point guard Nate Robinson and retired UFC fighter Ben Askren, Woodley’s friend, since he made his pro boxing debut in January 2020.

“All your sugar-coatin’-ass, cheerleadin’-ass, f------’ cheerleadin’-ass people that’s around you have lied to you,” Woodley said. “They’re not hurting you. They don’t wanna lose they bag. They’re not f------- pushing you. So, when you get in there Sunday, you can wear whatever you wanna wear, you can come out with that dumb-ass robot, you can do whatever you want – you will get f------- knocked out. You can make as many bets – the only thing I betted on is myself. And I’ve been betting on that the whole time.”

Paul-Woodley will headline Showtime’s five-fight pay-per-view telecast. It is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. EDT and costs $59.99.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.