If there was already pressure on Tommy Fury ahead of his grudge match with Jake Paul, his father’s has just taken away one option of winning.
The Fury family is supremely confident that on Sunday February 26 they will prove Paul belongs nowhere near a boxing ring. It’s a job that will specifically fall to Tommy, but his half-brother Tyson and father John have been preparing him.
Despite being firmly in his corner, the pair have piled pressure onto Tommy’s shoulders in various ways – claiming he must retire from boxing if he loses and joking that he’ll have to change his name, to highlight a couple.
John Fury has now added to that by telling Freebets.com that anything but a knockout win for his son is unacceptable.
“Absolutely [a points win would be disappointing.] He’s got to be knocked out. Let’s put it this way, if it goes to points he [Paul] deserves it. If it goes to a points decision and it’s a close fight, give it to Jake Paul. He deserves the win. Jake Paul’s getting knocked out, mate.”
A positive for Tommy, though, is the confidence his father and trainer has in him to end the contest early.
“Jake Paul can’t beat me. Listen, he’s rubbish. What do I have to do to explain to you people – you can’t do a job what takes years to perfect in just a few short years.
He’s never fought a proper fighter who’s going to hit him back. Tommy’s going to hit him back and cave his face in. Simple as that. All those 50 year old MMA guys, they’ve got no head movement, they’ve got no structure, they’ve got nothing. They’re heavy bags.”
“Tommy is going to absolutely destroy him. There’s nothing else on Tommy’s mind. There’s been too much said.”
The action goes down in Diriyah on February 26, with the broadcast coming from BT Sport Box Office in the UK and ESPN+ in the US.