[4] His fight against former UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley was announced on July 12, 2021, with the venue and date set to be in Paul's hometown of Cleveland on August 29, 2021.

[5] Prior to the bout, Paul had compiled a record of 3–0 (3 KOs) as a professional boxer, and was coming off a first-round technical knockout victory on April 17, 2021 against former mixed martial artist Ben Askren, who similar to Woodley had also previously competed in the UFC.

[6] For his part, Woodley made his debut as a professional boxer against Paul, and had most recently competed as a mixed martial artist on March 27, 2021, at UFC 260, when he suffered a first-round submission defeat against Vicente Luque.

The defeat against Luque was Woodley's fourth consecutive loss as a mixed martial artist.

However, on December 6, it was announced that Fury pulled out due to a rib injury, and Tyron Woodley stepped in his place for a rematch.