After multiple false starts, Jake Paul will once again attempt to fight reality show star and part-time pugilist Tommy Fury atop the ESPN+ and FITE+ pay-per-view (PPV) event on Sun., Feb. 26, 2023 from Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
Fury is the half brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and son of “sketchy” boxing trainer John Fury. The latter has been working overtime to get “TNT” prepared for the biggest (and by his account easiest) fight of Tommy’s career.
At great cost to Fury’s sparring partners.
“We’ve had good class kids in the gym. We’ve had heavyweights in, cruiserweights in, light heavyweights in, we’ve had them all,” Fury told Daily Mail. “They’ve all been good, class, young, hungry men. But, bring it. He’s been handling them very well. There have been a few visits to the hospital for the sparring partners but that’s boxing. He’s been doing them some damage. We’ve had a hairline fracture in the jaw and we’ve had a few knockdowns. We’ve had a few cold knockouts from Tommy. He’s been destroying his sparring partners. You can ask them. He knows who they are. They know whether Tommy is the real deal or not.”
Sean Strickland would be proud.
The 26 year-old Paul is 6-0 with four knockouts and recently turned away former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Fury, who turns 24 in May, improved to 8-0 with four knockouts by defeating Polish slugger Daniel Bocianski last April.
The Paul-Fury undercard will pit Badou Jack against Ilunga Makabu for the WBC cruiserweight championship. In addition, Ashton Sylve collides with Maxwell Awuku not long after Ziyad Almaayouf face off against an opponent to be named.
