By Jim Calfa: Ryan Garcia was one of the rare notable boxers that praised Jake Paul after his loss to Tommy Fury last Sunday night in Saudi Arabia. Jake gave it a good try before losing an eight round split decision to Tommy in their headliner.
While some fans felt that it should have been a more lopsided score in Tommy’s favor, the excessive clinching essentially prevented Jake from throwing punches.
Also, the point that the referee took from Tommy in the fifth round without warning him shouldn’t have happened.
If you look at the poor job the referee did with his point deduction of Jake and how he did nothing to control the excessive clinching from Tommy, you can make a strong argument that Paul would have won if a better official was working the fight.
Ryan feels that Jake (6-1, 4 KOs) did an admirable job against the more experienced Tommy (9-0, 4 KOs), who has been fighting for many years, having ground up in the Fury family.
This is something that the 23-year-old Tommy has been learning since he was a child. In contrast, Jake Paul took up boxing three years ago, and he’s already risen to the level where he was competitive with Tommy.
Ryan notes that after just seven fights, Jake has made $40 million and is fabulously wealthy. Even the best fighters in boxing don’t accumulate that kind of money that early in their careers, as it takes years for super-talented fighters to make that kind of money.
$40M made by Jake Paul in seven fights
“Jake couldn’t lose! You don’t just come into boxing, basically make $40M+ in your first seven fights and consider that as losing,” said Ryan Garcia on Twitter, reacting to Jake Paul suffering his first career defeat against Tommy Fury last weekend in Saudi Arabia.
“Further, he was competitive against Tommy, so I’m going to tip my hat off to him and say congratulations and good luck in whatever you do next.”
There’s a possibility of a Jake vs. Tommy rematch taking place later this year, but we’ll have to see if that happens. If there is a rematch, it’ll be interesting to observe whether Jake can make improvements in his game from the first fight.
As Jake’s trainer BJ Flores says, Paul is going to have to cut off the ring better, throw more punches, and deal with the different things that Tommy did last Sunday.
Jake isn’t going to be able to do anything about Tommy’s hand speed advantage, but he can improve on his jabs, and throwing combinations instead of the one-punch-at-a-time style that he used.
Besides cutting off the ring, Jake will need to find a way to keep throwing punches while being held by Tommy because he’s going to be clinched frequently.
That’s how Tommy has always fought, and he’s not going to suddenly stop clinching excessively and be more professional because he fights a like his brother Tyson Fury, who uses a lot of clinching & leaning in his fights and gets away with it.
“You got to give credit to Tommy. Tommy came in and fought a good fight, he stayed on the outside, and he used his hand speed and his jab and upper body movement,” said Jake Paul’s trainer BJ Flores to iFL TV.
“I haven’t had a chance to look at the tape yet, but when I do, I’ll make an official decision about what I thought. Look, Tommy was out-landing Jake in a lot of those rounds, and we got to do a lot better in cutting off the distance and getting closer to Tommy.
Jake Paul’s trainer not saying he’ll win rematch
“I give him and his team full credit. They came over here [Saudi Arabia]. They had their backs against the wall, with a lot of people doubting Tommy. You’ve got to give the kid credit. He fought a hell of a fight, and he showed a lot of toughness.
“Jake hit him with some really good right hands, but he couldn’t really put them together. Tommy showed toughness. I expected him to be tough, of course. He never showed it in a fight before, but like I said the entire time, it didn’t mean that he couldn’t do it.
“I expected Jake to be a little more consistent, but I’ve got to give Tommy credit for taking Jake’s strengths away, and that’s something we’re going to go back to the drawing board and work on.
“We’re going to be more consistent on that attack, and we’re not going to be so spaced out so much. Full credit to Tommy. We’ll go back and look at the tape and review it and see what we got to do to make adjustments.
“I think it was a hard jab from Jake, and Jake was hitting Tommy with hard jabs the entire fight,” said Flores when asked about his thoughts on Jake knocking Tommy down in the eighth. “You saw Tommy’s nose all busted up and bleeding the whole time, but it was just a hard jab.
“It’s very rare that you see someone knocked down with a left jab, and Jake has got one of those left jabs. We needed to follow it up and put some more numbers on him and make Tommy feel some harder punches in more of the rounds than just the last round.
“I think the judges have five, six, and seven, all three judges gave those rounds to Tommy, and that’s really where we lost the fight.
“It’s Tommy’s night. I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, we’re going to go beat him again.’ I’m going to give Tommy his credit. He won. We’re going to go back and talk and see what makes sense for us. If we want to do the rematch next or when I think Jaje wants to do it. I think Tommy wants to do it already.
“It was a controversial fight a little bit. Look, if the people want to see it again, and it makes sense for both fighters to do it, then I’m sure we’ll do it. I’m not going to say Jake is going to beat him for sure. I’m going to give Tommy his moment to shine, and full respect to him, and then we’ll make some adjustments,” said Flores.