With the massive financial success of Jake Paul’s pay-per-view win over Ben Askren on April 17, it’s inevitable that Paul is going to fight again, no matter how much diehard boxing fans might want him to go away.
Paul (officially 3-0, 3 KO) has faced nobody with a legitimate boxing background to date. 38-year-old entrepreneur Joe Fournier — who is officially 9-0 (9 KO) in boxing — is one idea, and does at least understand the basics of the sport. He’d be a step up for the 24-year-old YouTube celebrity.
But another name that keeps being floated out there is Tommy Fury, brother to heavyweight champion Tyson. Paul has put his name out there and even recently said he was “planting the seed” for the fight.
The 21-year-old Tommy (5-0, 4 KO) has repeatedly said he’d take the fight, and again told talkSPORT that he wants Jake Paul in the ring, and took some shots at Paul and Ben Askren while he was at it:
“We’ll take the fight. If he sent the contract over tonight, it’d be signed and delivered straight back to him. All I see for that fight is easy money against an idiot. He makes YouTube videos for a living, he hasn’t been hit in his face in his entire life, he doesn’t know what it’s like to take a shot. I’d put my mother in with Ben Askren and my mother would chin him because he’s no good, he’s useless, he’s a wrestler. UFC is not boxing. If you’re gonna fight an MMA fighter you may as well fight a chef out of a kitchen because they can’t fight, they can’t stand up.”
Fury promoter Frank Warren is also on board and says he wants to get it done, too.
“Actions speak louder than words. I know Jake’s got this following on YouTube and whatever he’s got. He says all the right things, but you know what? Do it. We want to make the fight,” Warren told iFL TV.
“It’s really easy. He takes 50 percent, Tommy’s side takes 50 percent. Make the fight. Let’s get it done. Not a problem with us at all. Get it on. Tommy wants it. Stop talking about it and do it. That’s the problem with all these guys, they all seem to talk a lot, these YouTubers. They say what they want to do, they look for the easy touches. If he’s really serious, get it.”
Warren even put it right out there as far as TV rights — sometimes a sticking point in fight negotiations.
“I’ll tell you how easy it is to make: Triller can do the worldwide TV rights and BT does the British ones, let’s get it on. There’s nothing to stop that fight happening. Tommy wants it, I want it, and I know who the winner’s going to be there. So prove me wrong. But if you’re not going to do it, stop telling people that you want the fight. Do it!”
Tommy is a bit smaller than Jake, he’s really probably a light heavyweight, but that’s not that big of a deal. He’s a bigger guy than Ben Askren, and Tommy — while no seasoned veteran and, in his own words, not some great amateur or anything either — is legitimately trained with boxing in his blood. He is a real boxing prospect who knows what he’s doing in the ring, which is a lot more than can be said for Askren (with respect to his MMA career), Nate Robinson, or AnEsonGib. For starters, he knows how to stand and how to throw a proper punch with boxing form. Huge step up compared to Paul’s prior opponents.
On the other side, Paul has said the teams have spoken, which Warren also said is true.
“I think it’s a great matchup, and I think it’d be a massive, massive fight,” Paul told ESPN’s Max Kellerman. “Our teams are talking and trying to figure something out. I’m with it. I’ll fight whoever, wherever, whenever.”