When Jake Paul meets Tommy Fury this Sunday (US time) in Saudi Arabia, there’s apparently going to be some extra sizzle to the steak– a double or nothing bet between the two novice pros.
“He keeps on saying it’s an easy fight. Knocking me out, starching me, all these things,” the 26-year-old Paul said in Thursday’s final press conference to hype the pay-per-view event. “He comes from the bloodline, he’s been doing it his whole entire. Tommy, do you think this is gonna be an easy fight?
“I think we make a deal then, since you’re so confident. If you win, I’ll pay you double what I’m paying you already. But if I win, I take everything that I’m paying you.”
The 23-year-old Fury, kid brother of heavyweight champ Tyson Fury, looked slow to process the offer. His father, John Fury, though, stepped up to accept with little hesitation.
“You’ve got a deal! All or nothing!” the elder Fury shouted. Tommy Fury then met Jake Paul to shake hands over the supposed bet.
Whether this deal is real or not remains to be seen. Regardless, it adds some fuel to the promotional fire and certainly accomplished the goal of capturing headlines.
“I always take every fight seriously. I’ve fought UFC champions,” Paul told the assembled media. “Tyron Woodley was winning the UFC championship while I was on Disney Channel. So when Tommy says, ‘I’ve been doing this my whole life,’ none of that means anything. I’ve always trained harder, I’ve always trained tougher than all of my opponents. I want it more. I have more of a ‘why,’ I have more of a purpose.
“I’m Tommy’s end goal. This is the biggest opportunity of his life. He’s never been on a stage like this, he’s never gotten paid like this. He was getting paid peanuts compared to this. This is what I do now. Anderson Silva is one of the greatest strikers ever. Top five greatest combat strikers ever. So to go in there and out-box him, put him on the canvas, to me [Fury] is a speed bump and a cakewalk.
“He’s never been put in there with someone who wasn’t there to lose. When he’s in the locker room warming up he’s gonna be thinking, ‘Damn, everyone has been put in there to lose. The Warrens put me in there with scrubs, and now I have a real fight, eight rounds.’ He’s never been eight rounds, and he’s gonna get in the deep water and drown, I promise that.”
Fury, of course, feels differently about things.
“To even mention my name with his, it’s disrespectful to me. I’ve been boxing my whole life and I’m going to clinically knock this guy out early.”
“He keeps going on and on about Anderson Silva and Tyron Woodley. Tyron Woodley was 40 years old, Anderson Silva was nearly 50, not too far from my dad’s age. And he got took the full distance…
“(Now) you’ve got a fresh, young, 23-year-old, proper, legitimate fighter, who would have it inside and outside the ring. This is in my heart, blood, and soul, and you’re gonna feel that. Let me tell you now, I’m not a 50-year-old man. When you’re in the opposite corner and you’re getting hit all about the head, you’re gonna wake up and realize what boxing is, and it’s not fighting old men. You’ve got a proper fighter in here, and I’m gonna take your head off.
“When I put this man away in a mismatch, it’s gonna be onwards and upwards for me. I’m gonna take everything he’s got and he’s going to go home to Ohio or wherever he’s from, sulking.”
Paul-Fury won’t exactly be Hagler-Hearns. The fight will be exactly what it is– a clash between two novice pro boxers. But, still, it’ll be interesting nonetheless.
