Jake Paul takes next step in boxing journey with Tommy Fury fight
Jake Paul’s unorthodox boxing career could soon be serious.
The YouTube influencer-turned-prizefighter meets a recognized professional boxer for the first time on Sunday (Monday NZT) when he takes on Tommy Fury, half-brother of world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
Since venturing into boxing in 2018, Paul has wrestled another influencer, a former NBA basketball player and three MMA fighters. He has won every time, building his already strong brand in the process.
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Fighting Fury is widely viewed as a step forward and the WBC, which sanctions the fight, recognizes this. If 26-year-old Paul – a blonde, bearded social media phenomenon – wins, he will indeed be granted a spot in the WBC cruiserweight world rankings.
“Jake has a dedication and respect for the sport,” the sanctioning body said, “and the WBC will not tolerate discrimination against anyone. He deserves the opportunities that every other boxer has.”
It’s hardly a move that will be popular with boxing traditionalists.
Then again, Paul doesn’t exactly operate in those circles or try to please that demographic. He took a very different route into the boxing world and is successful as the fight against Fury has pay-per-view status and is considered big enough to be hosted in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia for big bucks.
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Jake Paul and Tommy Fury exchange pleasantries during a news conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Paul rose to fame a decade ago by releasing Vine videos and then starring as an actor on a Disney Channel show Bizaardvark. His rise as an influencer has not been without controversy, including allegations of sexual assault by two women in 2021 — he hasn’t been charged either — and his apparent use of racial slurs while rapping in some videos in 2018.
He was also charged with criminal trespassing and unlawful assembly in 2020, following a riot at a mall outside of Phoenix.
Boxing is his latest passion. He joined the pro ranks in 2019 and said he’s “as serious as it gets” about the sport. He says he has a 30-person team supporting his training, which is conducted largely at the Cleveland native’s base in Puerto Rico.
“Because my life is at stake,” he told British newspaper The Independent ahead of the Fury fight, “so I’m not going to take this lightly.”
Becoming a world champion boxer is his ultimate goal, although that goal seemed even more distant with the news in January that Paul had signed a contract with the Professional Fighters League in mixed martial arts.
Surely Fury doesn’t take his opponent seriously as a boxer.
“It’s like saying a pig is going to fly, isn’t it?” Fury said of Paul’s ambitions to become a world champion.
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The WBC has jeopardized a commemorative belt for the cruiserweight clash between Jake Paul and Tommy Fury.
“I’m going to teach Jake Paul a lesson… I’m going to show him that he can’t just pick up a pair of gloves and say, ‘I’m going to be world champion.'”
Fury has an interesting backstory too, and not just because he’s the half-brother of one of the most famous boxers in the world and comes from a family of bare-knuckle fighters.
The 23-year-old Briton has made a name for himself with his performances island of lovea dating reality TV show, in 2019. That forced him to put his boxing career on hold for nine months – by which point he had only fought twice – and he is now dating a British social media influencer, Molly —Mae Hague, Married, with whom Fury took second place island of love.
Fury has an 8-0 boxing record but has never completed more than six rounds in a single bout. In this respect, he is also taking a step into the unknown this weekend, at least when it comes to the global appeal of his opponent. Paul has 4.5 million followers on Twitter and 22 million followers on Instagram.
The fight was originally scheduled for December 2021 but Fury was forced to withdraw due to illness and injury, and then again for August 2022 only for Fury to withdraw again due to travel issues to the United States.
It will be fought over eight rounds and Tyson Fury gave his half-brother something of an ultimatum ahead of the catchweight fight.
“I expect Tommy to give him a chin,” he told British radio station talkSPORT. “If not, he can stay in Saudi Arabia.”