Tommy Fury stuns Jake Paul with a split decision victory

by

Jake Paul’s first fight in the ring with a real boxer didn’t go quite as he expected. Tommy Fury hands the YouTuber-turned-boxer his first loss on Sunday night at the Diriyah Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In an eight-round bout, the two rivals went toe-to-toe to the finish, with Fury picking up a split decision win.

Despite being knocked down in the final round, Fury had the judges on his side, as they scored the fight 76-73 twice for Fury and 75-74 just once for Paul. Immediately after the fight, Paul made it very clear that he did not agree with the judges and that, although it was a great fight, he will demand a rematch: “All respects to Tommy. He won. Don’t judge me by my wins, judge me by my losses. I will return. I think we deserve that rematch.” Calling it a “close fight,” Paul also said: “But I lost. I’m not making excuses. I’m just saying it wasn’t my best performance. I fell flat on my face. He shared with the crowd that he “got sick” and “injured[his]arm,” pointing to those issues as the main reasons he didn’t do as well as he could have.

Fury responded in his post-win interview and looks set to come back stronger for a rematch. The eighth-round knockdown of Paul caused an uproar among the crowd and watching boxing fans around the world. Although Paul rallied and made the move on him after a slow seventh round, he came out early with a left jab that sent Fury stumbling backwards and falling to the canvas for a brief moment. This was the first and only knockdown of the match. Landing some big punches on his own, Paul gained ground even though Fury had a slight advantage for most of the fight. Both boxers had a point deducted in later rounds for landing punches to the back of the other’s head. Fury responded to the eighth-round jab: “That wasn’t a knockdown, that was a slip. That was really a slip. I got up…I immediately went back to it.” Fury, unfazed by the blow, rose back up to close out the fight and landed several punches to keep his advantage. In the fight, Fury threw twice as many fights as Paul. In the post-fight interview, Fury shared an emotional speech:

“Throughout these two and a half years, I had a dream, I had a vision that I would win this fight and nobody believed me. Now I can stand up and everyone can take note. In my first main event, at age 23, the world was on me. I had pressure on my shoulders and I pulled through.”

In other sports news, Bronny James was recently projected to be a top 10 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.

Leave a Comment