News

Jake Paul So Confident Of Beating Tommy Fury He’s Already Goading A 45-Year-Old

Written by Boxing Social Staff on 22nd February 2023.

Jake Paul and Tommy Fury

In the clash of social media stars, Jake Paul will face a man he’s long been seeking to fight in Tommy Fury.

The thinking behind this is that their millions of combined followers will all give over their cash for the pay-per-view to see the two rumble in the squared circle.

Given the hype whipped up by the duo, there’s a chance that the fight in Diriyah will drum up one of the largest viewership counts for a live event in 2023. However, given the way that Paul is talking, he’s not exactly selling it as a close, competitive draw, and it already using his social media platform to call out his next target.

Odds giving Jake Paul a slight reason to be confident

For the week of the event, the Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury odds have the American as the favourite at -137 to win by the end of the night. The Brit is the narrow underdog at +125, with a tie at shorter odds than usual – what with a rematch likely being a big-money event – at +1100.

The thing is that Paul is yet to have a match against a boxer, professional or otherwise. His first five fights were against four debutants, one of which came back for a rematch, and then he threw down with 47-year-old MMA fighter Anderson Silva. While of little caliber – as you’d expect so early into a career – Fury has defeated eight boxers.

It’s because of this that those simply looking at records will side with the bookmakers odds, which have been boosted to +550 for Tommy Fury to win by points or decision. Looking at their more recent couple of outings, it’s clear that Fury is the more refined boxer of the two.

Paul’s footwork is very lackluster, with him often wrong-stepping himself and crossing over, he loves rabbit punching and wrapping up, and his go-to move – step-in, head down, looping overhand – leaves him very open. Fury’s got much better footwork and keeps a solid base, and he incorporates traits vaguely similar to his half-brother, Tyson Fury, which helps him evade and create angles for different punch combinations.

There’s a lot of focus on the overhand Paul fired around the sloppy guard of Woodley in their second meet. While Tommy Fury’s guard isn’t perfect, and he does tend to leave openings when he’s ready to pounce, he tends to keep his arms out further and have active hands. If he concentrates, he should be able to negate Paul’s weapon and perhaps even counter well.

Confident Paul calling out a long-retired legend

In the recent Tweet shown above, Paul notes that he’s against an 8-0 Tommy Fury in his seventh fight, while former world super middleweight champion Carl Froch was up against a 3-5-0 boxer at the same stage. It doesn’t make mention of it being Froch’s seventh professional boxing opponent out of seven, or that it was the up-and-comer’s seventh fight in the last 12 months. Paul has faced seven non-boxers in 37 months to date.

Still, Paul’s followers don’t care about that kind of thing: it’s all about the next big series of spectacles and putdowns for the next fight. It might all change if Fury beats Paul, of course, but as it stands, the American is confident of being able to coax Froch back into the ring some nine or maybe ten years after he hung up the gloves as the IBF and WBA World super middleweight champion to presumably rumble at cruiserweight, aged 45.

Having heard Paul’s remarks, or been forwarded the numerous social media posts, the four-time world champion did decide to quieten down the remarks. In Froch’s Twitter post, the greyed legend explains that the two aren’t in the same league, and that Paul’s yet to even get past Tommy Fury. Eloquent as always, Froch has at least put the pressure on the man who’ll be in his first match against a trained boxer this weekend, and left the door open.

Jake Paul certainly appears confident coming into his Saudi Arabia meet with Tommy Fury, and the odds are edging toward the American, but this will be his toughest event yet. Perhaps he shouldn’t be calling out greats of boxing just yet.