By William Lloyd: Tommy Fury says Jake Paul and his huge security team tried to rush him after the fight when he was in the hallway giving an interview after he’d defeated Anthony Taylor by a four round unanimous decision last Sunday at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, in Cleveland, Ohio.
(Photo credit: Amanda Westcott/Showtime)
The unbeaten cruiserweight Tommy Fury (7-0, 4 KOs) says he saw fear in Jake’s eyes when they were talking, and he feels that he would have never stopped to briefly talk if his large security staff didn’t accompany him to protect him.
Jake (4-0, 3 KOs) looked like he was talking to get attention because the hallway was filled with media, and it would have looked weak on his part if he walked past Tommy, 22, without saying something to him.
The perception is already out there among boxing fans that Jake is afraid of Tommy because he’s a real boxer and not a washed-up former MMA guy or YouTuber like himself.
Jake looked poor in his own fight on the card, winning a questionable eight round split decision against 40-year-old former UFC champion Tyron Woodley.
That should have been scored a draw in the eyes of many fans, as Woodley was robbed of a knockdown in the fourth when he knocked Jake through the ropes with a right hand. He performed well enough to win four rounds easily.
With the blown call on the knockdown, Woodley did more enough to deserve an eight round unanimous decision instead of a loss.
Tommy Fury realistic about his performance
“I’m a realist. The performance wasn’t good. He should have been out of there in one round,” said Tommy Fury to Boxing Social on his fight with Anthony Taylor last Sunday.
“But boxing is boxing. You have good days and bad days. You take it with a pinch of salt and get on with the next. We got the win.
That’s all that matters; I got the win. I got to admit, I never faced anyone that small ever in my career, and it was awkward punching down,” said Tommy Fury talking about the difficulties he had trying to punch the 5’7″ Taylor.
“I always found him at my waist height throughout the fight. Again, it was awkward, but it was another style to add to my arsenal, and we’ll move on to the next. But no excuses. It should have been better, and it will be next time,” Tommy said.
The honesty of Tommy is refreshing for a boxer because most of them would be in denial after a lackluster performance like the one he had against MMA fighter Anthony Taylor.
To his credit, Tommy admits that he didn’t fight the way he would have liked, but he had problems with the 5’7″ height of the much smaller Taylor.
Tommy was punching down on Taylor the entire fight and dealing with him fighting on the inside much of the time. Before this fight, Tommy had never fought anyone with an inside game before, and he didn’t know how to adjust to that style of fighting.
Fury saw fear in Jake Paul’s eyes
“Well, in the post-fight interview, he had nothing to say about me,” Fury said about Jake Paul. “He went off the subject very quick when he was asked about me, but in the hallway, it was a very different story.
OH. MY! 😮
“You need to stop running my friend!”
“Take the fight!”@tommytntfury and @jakepaul finally came face-to-face backstage and it was absolute chaos! 👀 pic.twitter.com/1398ZTZzMZ
— Boxing on BT Sport 🥊 (@BTSportBoxing) August 30, 2021
“He and his entourage and security came bombing down when I was doing an interview and tried to rush me.
“The whole of his team was going mad, my team was going mad, but the one thing to take away from that is there was a split point where it was just me and him looking into each other’s eyes.
“His team and my team were going back and forth, and I seen something in his eyes, and that man don’t want no part of me, I’ll tell you that.
“I was locked in with him because he looked in my eyes and knew there was no messing with me. Oh, he certainly does now anyway.
“Listen, if he [Jake Paul] fights me, it’s goodbye to boxing because he’s useless. Probably not because he’s got no balls,” Tommy Fury said when asked if Jake will fight him.
“If he was a revved-up fighting man and he wanted to have a fight, then obviously he would. Don’t care about winning or losing, but Jake Paul slightly found out how hard boxing is tonight,” said Fury.
It did look like Jake was afraid of Tommy, and it was surprising to see. After all the trash-talking that Jake had done, he looked visibly afraid of Tommy when standing face-to-face with him in the hallway.
It would have been interesting to have seen what Jake’s reaction would have been if he had not been surrounded by a safe cushion of his security staff to protect him.
Jake got knocked through the ropes
“He took one shot, and he ended up through the ropes. ‘Oh, I found out how hard this game is.’ He’s got no footwork, can’t miss a shot,” said Tommy in reacting to Jake’s performance against Tyron Woodley.
“He’s going to be in trouble if he fights me. I didn’t make anything with it,” said Fury when asked about his thoughts on Jake’s performance against Woodley.
“I could have thrown my brother in there with Tyron Woodley, and he’d go eight rounds. The man, Jake, has no footwork. He can’t avoid a shot. He’s a rank novice. I’m a rank novice myself, but I’m a bit better than him, I’ll tell you that.
“Jake, if you want a fight, come and see me. Like I said before, I’m more than happy to give it to you in the hallway like you keep doing.
“But I’m sick and tired. You either want the fight, or you don’t, or let everyone know where it’s at. Don’t use my name anymore if you don’t want the fight because if you get near me, you’re going to get flattened.
“That’s all I’ve got to say about him. I’m sick of mentioning his name. I’ve had enough of him,” said an agitated Tommy Fury about Jake Paul.
Jake looked in sad shape getting knocked down by Tyron Woodley in the fourth round, and it was shocking that the referee chose not to score that as a knockdown.
You have to wonder if we’d have seen it ruled differently if it were the B-side fighter Woodley that was knocked through the ropes instead of Jake.
