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Light heavyweight prospect Tommy Fury says the financial opportunity was too good to pass up, for a planned showdown with Youtube star turned boxer Jake Paul.
The contest is slated to take place next month in Saudi Arabia.
The two rivals have been trading words since 2021.
They were scheduled to collide on two previous occasions. In 2021, Fury withdrew with a training camp injury. The following year, he was denied entry into the United States.
Fury, the younger brother of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, admits the money is the main motivating factor to go forward with Paul fight for a third time.
Fury (8-0, 4 KOs) will be the first pro boxer that Paul has ever faced in the ring.
“If you want to slap millions of pounds in front of my face to fight Jake Paul, why am I not going to do that? I’ve got a family to feed now any day – the reason I’ve taken the Jake Paul fight is it’s financially good,” Fury told Rob Moore on the Disruptors podcast.
“There is [a part of me that wants to shut him up] but he doesn’t get underneath my skin like that. He can’t get underneath my skin because I know what he’s doing. He’s a whizz on social media, he’s made a living off being an idiot, arrogant and calling people out. It is what it is but he can’t get underneath my skin.
“All I see with Jake Paul is a business and if you want me to beat a man who can’t fight and throw millions of pounds in my face, not a problem, sign me up and that’s purely what this is. I’ve described it all the time as being on Route 66 and I need to stop off in my campervan, fill it up and get back on the road.
“I am on a straight and narrow road to world titles. But you want me to take a slight detour for an awful lot of fuel, pick that up and then jump back on the road? That’s exactly what I’m doing here at the end of the day. This is a business, you’ve got to use your head and every fighter in my position would take that fight if it got offered to them.
“I don’t [believe he’s a legitimate boxer]. I believe he’s a man who got it in his head that boxing is a good idea, he can make some money from it and see what happens. There’s two completely different people here, I’ve grown up doing this and it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.
“I’m not doing it for money, I’m doing it for passion and my dream. This man is just dropping into the sport, dropping in and dropping out seeing what he can do. Making a quick buck – the way the world’s gone at the minute it’s absolutely crazy and before going on Love Island, even after coming out of Love Island before all this Jake Paul YouTube boxing stuff started, I was fighting legitimate people.”
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