By Adam Baskin: Jake Paul (6-1, 4 KOs) has revealed that he will be activating the rematch clause to face Tommy Fury (9-0, 4 KOs) again after losing to him by an eight round split decision in a game effort on Sunday night at theDiriyah Arena, in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
Jake confirmed afterward that he’d already spoken to Tommy, and he’s agreed to face him again in an immediate rematch. Paul, 26, isn’t entirely pleased with his performance, and he believes he can and will do better in the rematch.
The judges had it close, scoring it 76-73, 76-73 for the 23-year-old Tommy Fury, and 75-74 for Jake Paul.
There were a couple of point deductions in the fight, with Jake getting penalized for a rabbit punch in the fifth and Fury being docked a point in the sixth for holding.
Jake’s rabbit punch in the fifth appeared to be retaliation for Tommy hitting him in the back of the head in the fourth round. The punch that Tommy hit Jake with was very blatant and powerful.
It’s unclear why the referee took a point away from Jake in the fifth for his rabbit punch while ignoring Tommy’s shot a round earlier in the fourth.
Was the referee confused and had forgotten which of the two fighters had started the rabbit punching to begin with? In the rematch, obviously, there will be a different referee, so hopefully, we don’t get a repeat of what we saw tonight.
“For sure, I got to go get this one back, and KSI is yet to fight a real opponent, so we don’t even know his actual skill level,” said Jake Paul at the point fight press conference on Sunday night, making it clear that he wants a rematch against Tommy Fury rather than facing Youtuber KSI next.
Jake Paul says he will activate the Tommy Fury rematch clause before fighting KSI… pic.twitter.com/sEgi9KELSw
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) February 27, 2023
“Obviously, that’s still a massive fight, but I’m going to go back for this rematch. I just talked to Tommy back in the medical room, and he said, ‘Let’s go; let’s do it again.’ So he’s down for it. So I think that’ll be the focus first and foremost.
“I’m going to prove that I can fight a better fight than I did tonight and get that W,” said Jake Paul.
Jake will need to let his hands go more in the rematch because he was waiting too long before letting his shots go. Also, Tommy was able to clinch and not worry about getting hit while holding. Jake needs to fight through the clinches because Tommy was getting away with holding without getting nailed.
The top fighters in the sport keep punching while being held, and this, in turn, makes their opponents hesitant to use holding as a tactic to neutralize their offense. Jake was letting Tommy hold him all night without making him pay.