Jake Paul and Tommy Fury finally made the walk to the ring on February 26 at the Diriyah arena in Saudi Arabia. Fury edged out a closely contested split decision victory over Paul, ending 'The Problem Child's undefeated run as a pro boxer.
Fury started off as the early aggressor, establishing his jab while Paul repeatedly looked for the clinch. While the YouTuber-turned-boxer seemingly found some momentum in rounds 2 and 3, it only lasted for a short while.
Fury once again came out with aggression in the fourth round, which is when the tide started to turn. The Englishman's jab found its mark more often than not in the fifth round, while his opponent was penalized for holding the back of his head. 'TNT' significantly upped his output in the later rounds, and Paul had little to offer except for a last-round knockdown, which likely led to the scorecards being split.
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Jake Paul got some undeserving hate on social media, as there is seemingly no dearth of people looking to kick him while he is down. Fans crowded Twitter to celebrate Paul's first professional defeat.
"LMFAO Tommy fury hit Jake Paul so hard that he sent him back to his Disney era 😭"
Fellow YouTuber KSI and 'TNT's half-brother Tyson Fury also chimed in to take a dig at Paul.
Meanwhile, Jake Paul's former opponent Deji claimed that 'The Problem Child' had been robbed of a draw.
Check out more reactions below:
Jake Paul weighs in on potential outing against KSI
Jake Paul and Tommy Fury were extremely respectful toward each other in the aftermath of their clash in Saudi Arabia. However, Paul did come under some criticism for claiming that he was ill and had an arm injury.
'The Problem Child' is currently at an important juncture in his career as his undefeated record ended with his first outing against a professional boxer who was the same size as him. The 25-year-old could go back to fighting retired MMA fighters like Nate Diaz or fellow YouTubers like KSI.
Despite going back-and-forth over the past several months, Jake Paul has now snubbed KSI as a potential opponent in favor of a rematch against Tommy Fury. The YouTuber said during the post-fight media scrum in Diriyah:
“KSI has yet to fight a real opponent, so we don’t even know his actual skill level. Obviously, that’s still a massive fight. But I’m gonna go back for this rematch. I just talked to Tommy back in the medical room, and he’s like, ‘Let’s go, let’s do it again.’ And and he’s down for it. So I think that that will be the focus first and foremost. I’m gonna prove that I can go and fight a better fight than I did tonight and get that W.”
Catch Paul's comments below: