Tyron Woodley couldn’t have been any quicker in accepting an offer to face Jake Paul once again.

The happenchance rematch came on short notice for the former UFC welterweight champion, who now has a chance to avenge the defeat suffered in his lone career boxing match to date. Woodley steps in on short notice versus Paul (4-0, 3KOs) atop a December 18 Showtime Pay-Per-View event at AMALIE Arena in Tampa. The call came in the aftermath of learning that England’s Tommy Fury (7-0, 4KOs) was forced to withdraw due to illness and injury.

“Very few times you get a chance to go back and redo something,” Woodley noted of the last-minute opportunity for part two with Paul, during a recent Zoom media conference call. “Sometimes, you sit back and live in regret, like ‘Dang, man, I thought I won the fight. I could’ve did this a little different.’

“Now I get the opportunity to go back and undo something that was done to me. That’s something that drives me even without any additional money, any sold out crowd or whatever. The fact that Jake Paul can walk around and say he beat me just f-----’ boils my skin, my blood, everything inside my body. I’m just trying to go out there and make it clear that I’m the better fighter, the better puncher, the real athlete.”

Woodley came dangerously close to handing the first defeat to Paul, a social media content creator-turned-cruiserweight prospect. Paul was considered fortunate to have avoided a knockdown call when the ropes held him up during the fourth round of his eventual split decision win on August 29 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland. Woodley won on the scorecard of Phil Rogers (77-75) but was overruled by judges Dana DePaoio (78-74) and Jaime Garayua (77-75) to suffer defeat in his lone pro bout to date.

It was as close as Paul (4-0, 3KOs) has come to losing, having scored early knockouts in each of his previous three pro bouts. Woodley believes that he deserved the nod, though has no problem finishing what he started now that is armed with a second chance at a lasting impression.

“Look, I feel like I won the fight anyway,” noted Woodley. “I watched it back for the first time (on Wednesday). I feel like I won rounds four through eight. That’s five rounds I won out of eight rounds. I don’t understand how I could outland him in rounds four, five, six, seven and eight and still not win the fight. Even the fourth round that should have counted as a 10-8 round.

“Add those little tweaks, put in more volume and you’ll see me get the knockout (on December 18).”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox