Boxing Results: Tommy Fury defeats Jake Paul by 8 round split decision

By Boxing News - 02/26/2023 - Comments

By Craig Daly: The more experienced cruiserweight Tommy Fury (9-0, 4 KO) used a conservative game plan to box his way to an eight round split decision over Jake Paul (6-1, 4 KOs) in a lackluster fight on Sunday night at the Diriyah Arena in Saudi Arabia.

Jake, 26, didn’t have the skills to overcome the ability of the 23-year-old Fury, who looked poor but was still better than his Youtuber counterpart.

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The scores were: 75-74 Jake, 76-73, and 76-73 for Tommy.

For the fans that were expecting a real slugfest, they had to be disappointed because it looked like two middle-of-the-road fighters with limited talent and not showing much ability. Tommy is terrible to watch, and Jake fights like an ape, showing no ability.

Jake dropped Tommy with a powerful jab in the eighth round, but it was a case of too little too late. He needed to put Tommy down earlier in the fight because he was getting outboxed in almost every round.

The referee surprisingly took a point away from Jake in the fifth round after he hit Tommy in the back of the head with a shot. In the next round, the referee penalized Tommy for excessive clinching.

When you look at the point deductions, they canceled each other out, but it was a little unfair for Jake to lose a point for the first rabbit punch he threw.  Tommy held all night long and was only penalized once by the referee.

Fury, the younger brother of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, played it safe, fighting on the outside, using his jab to keep Jake from getting close enough to land his powerful right hand.

When Jake did come close enough to throw shots, Paul would grab him in a tight clinch or headlock to prevent him from getting his punches off.

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It was an intelligent game plan by Tommy, but very ugly to watch and disappointing, given that this was a pay-per-view fight on ESPN+ and BT Box Office PPV. When you have a fight of this magnitude, it’s not a good idea to spoil the entire fight round contest the way Tommy was.

Given this performance, one can’t imagine Tommy getting another big-money opportunity, but that was obvious going in.

There’s no one else for Tommy to fight at cruiserweight that will give him this kind of payday, and he’d stand no chance against the light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev or Dmitry Bivol, so that’s not an option.

Tommy is more of a celebrity boxer than a real one, so you can’t put him in against the top 10 fighters at cruiserweight or light heavyweight.

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