By Dan Ambrose: Tommy Fury took to social media on Monday to call out Jake Paul for his next fight. The unbeaten 21-year-old Fury (5-0, 4 KOs), who is the younger brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, says he “ready” to fight YouTuber ‘The Problem Child’ Paul (3-0, 3 KOs).
If Jake, 24, doesn’t want to fight, Tommy says he wants him to stop mentioning his name. Jake recently floated the idea of him facing Tommy while Michael Hunter fights Tyson Fury on the same card.
In other words, for Tommy to get the fight with Jake, WBC heavyweight champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) would need to give a title shot to fringe contender Hunter.
Given that Hunter has done nothing to rate a world title shot, the chances of Fury voluntarily letting him challenge for his WBC title are slim and none.
Jake has gained a measure of fame recently by turning himself into a celebrity boxer, who handpicks non-boxers to make a lot of money. In the cruiserweight Jake’s three fights in the professional ranks, he’s beaten these guys:
- Ali Eson Gib – YouTuber
- Nate Robinson – retired former NBA player
- Ben Askren – former MMA fighter
Last Saturday, Jake stopped the 36-year-old Askren in the first round in his pro debut on Triller pay-per-view at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta.
Tommy Fury calls out Jake Paul
“I’m here, I’m ready and I’m game to fight,” said Tommy Fury calling out Jake Paul on Instagram.
“This man [Jake] obviously isn’t, and if he’s not game to fight, stop using my name. If you want to fight, come and get some,” said Fury.
Jake won’t accept a fight with the light heavyweight Tommy Fury because he has skills and would be a massive problem.
Tommy would be giving away a little age and size against the 24-year-old cruiserweight, but he would make up for that with his boxing ability.
Jake would have to worry about punches coming back at him for a change, and that would be a massive problem. With that said, Jake could earn respect from the true boxing fans if he were to face Tommy Fury.
That’s not because they view Tommy as a future world champion, because they clearly don’t see him as that type of fighter. Tommy is a good solid British domestic-level fighter, and he’s worlds better than the fodder that Jake has been fighting in his career.
The real issue that isn’t being discussed is the mismatches that Jake Paul is putting on against non-boxers give the boxing public a poor product to watch because they’re designed to be competitive fights.
Fans are paying a lot of money to watch Jake’s fights, mistakenly believing that they’re going to see a great fight. Instead, they see some hapless non-boxer getting blown out by Jake in fights that typically last one round.
Jake has become the new Butterbean of this era. Although he’s not fat like Butterbean, his fights end in the same way as he did. The difference between those two is that Butterbean fought at heavyweight, and he didn’t make the kind of coin that Jake is getting.
Kellerman in favor of Jake Paul’s mismatches
“It was a one-hitter quitter. One guy jumps in with a right hand, cold-cocks the other guy, and stops him,” said Max Kellerman to ESPN on Jake Paul’s win over Ben Askren.
“Askren got up, but he was done with one shot. I’m impressed. Askren’s not a boxer, but he scored knockouts in MMA with his hands.
“He is an experienced fighter, but Jake Paul is a novice. So I would not recommend that he [Jake] fight guys with a deep amateur record because that muscle memory, even if you’re a fantastic athlete. You’ve taken it very seriously when you start exchanging with someone that has muscle memory from the time they were a kid; it’s not going to go well for you usually.
“It’s not going to go good. Jake Paul is not responsible for the shape the other dude comes in. He had no amateur fights. As a professional, he does his celebrity boxing stuff, but he takes it seriously.
“All you can ask from Jake Paul is he takes it seriously, he’s dedicated to the craft, and he shows up in shape, and he gives it his best.
“He’s not really responsible for Nate Robinson taking it as seriously as he is or Askren not showing up in shape. That’s not his business. His business is to take care of himself.
“The next time he fights someone, should it be someone with a deeper background? Honestly, not if he can get money for fighting fights like this.
“If you’re being paid millions to put on a show and you have to find the right kind of name opponent to put it on with, depending on your aspirations, who says you ever have to fight more than that if the public will still pay for it?” said Kellerman in appearing to endorse what Jake is doing by taking easy fights.
If the 1.5 million pay-per-view buys numbers are true with what Jake is saying that his fight with Askren brought in last Saturday, we’re going to be seeing these types of celebrity mismatches from him for a long time.
This isn’t going to stop anytime soon, which is sad because you would think that fans would be more selective in how they spend their money.
Is Jake Paul stealing money from fans?
“I can’t hear that from you guys because I will defer to your boxing expertise as much as you’ve been covering boxing, and I don’t mean to come across like I’m being negative about Jake Paul in any way,” said Stephen A. Smith.
“I’m not knocking him [Paul] for it. I’m just saying the people that put these fights together, the guys that are taking it seriously, man.
“To throw him [Jake] in the ring with guys that don’t box is not right. It’s not even about him stealing money.
“You can really hurt somebody. Listen, we haven’t seen Nate Robinson since [he was knocked cold by Jake Paul]. If you notice, we haven’t laughed about that.
“We have not seen Nate Robinson since. I was told that Nate Robinson had to be carried out of the ring. This is some serious damage that happened to Nate Robinson, okay?
“I’m just this guy [Jake] is not a joke. So, guys that get in the ring with him, they need to know how to box.
“To you, the reason why I stopped you is that we have lamented for years that Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather waited forever to fight Manny Pacquiao and didn’t fight this guy and didn’t fight that guy because he was being smart with making his money.
‘When are you going to fight this guy, or why didn’t you fight that guy?’ We did that to him, and this guy was considered a world champion. He was considered universally one of the greatest ever,” said Stephen.
“The difference is, we knew that Floyd was one of the greatest and what boxing people are saying is, yes, you can navigate yourself to an undefeated record,” said Kellerman.
“By the way, Floyd’s resume is underrated. He has a great resume. But there were times where there were fights that we wanted him to take, and he didn’t take,” said Kellerman.
For the Jake Paul enablers, they love the idea that he’s setting up easy fights and making excellent money in matches that have no sense of being competitive.
But for people that want value for their money, they’re alarmed at what they see from the Jake fights because it’s taking boxing downward by supplying the unknowing public a poor product.
