After months of back and forths, we finally got an end to the rivalry between Jake Paul and Tommy Fury. Prior to the fight, both men had constantly taken jabs at each other on social media and during fight week face to face. Paul supposedly ‘leaked’ the announcement of Fury’s baby prior to the news being public and Fury has constantly stated that he is the boxer out of the two with Paul being simply a Youtube star. On the night, live from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Fury narrowly outpointed Paul via split decision.
Paul has constantly stated that he has world championship aspirations, however, it looked far from possible on the night, showing that he’s not at the level of a legitimate professional boxer. It’s worth remembering that Paul has only taken boxing up in the past three years, so to be at this level has to be admired. You can check out the full results of the card here.
Fight Night
The key fight on the card was between the WBC Cruiserweight champion, Ilunga Mukabu and the former WBC super-middleweight champion, Badou Jack. Muakbu has only suffered one loss 2008, to Tony Bellew in 2016 in Bellew’s home city. Heading into the fight, many believed that Mukabu’s strength would be simply too much for Jack. With 25 knockouts into the fight, Mukabu held 25 knockouts through 29 wins, of which seven have come since his loss to The Bomber. With a shock to many, Badou Jack TKO’d Mukabu in the final round having knocked him down twice previously to gain the WBC Cruiserweight championship.
The Main Event
The opening round was scrappy and pretty amateurish. The two men were falling over their front feet and there was a lot of clinching throughout.
The second and third rounds were certainly better than the first. There wasn’t as much clinching, Paul began to find the range with his overhand right and Fury’s jab appeared to be too quick for Paul.
The fourth was certainly a Fury round, landing well on Paul, consistently and frustrating his opponent. He was countering well, seeing everything that was coming his way and avoiding it with relative ease.
The fifth was controversial. Jake Paul had a point taken away for hitting Tommy Fury on the back of the head after a brief exchange. Prior to the exchange, there was no hard warning from the referee to Paul, it was Fury, in fact, who landed a big heavy blow behind the head during an exchange at the end of the fourth. Paul came back with a vengeance, landing a clean left hook and wobbling Fury.
The sixth and seventh were uneventful, the only point worthy of note was a point taken from Fury for holding and pushing Jake Paul towards the ground. Make that one each for points deducted.
The final round exploded. Paul put a stiff jab out there and caught Fury entering range off balance. A knockdown for Paul, regardless of whether Fury was hurt or not. The two men threw everything they had left in a fight that was a lot more entertaining than many predicted it to be.
Once the fight was concluded, Fury was announced the winner via split decision, although it’s doubtful that this is the last time we’ll see these guys in the ring together. Paul has a rematch clause, which we predict that he’ll activate.
