Light heavyweight prospect Tommy Fury has rejected the chatter from upcoming opponent Jake Paul, who fears the British star is going to withdraw from their scheduled fight.
Fury was set to face Paul in 2021, but was forced to withdraw with a training injury. A year later, Fury was unable to proceed for a second time – when he was denied entry into the United States.
They are now set to collide on February 26 in Saudi Arabia.
Despite pen being put to paper for a third time, Paul has openly expressed his concerns about a possible withdrawal by Fury.
Those concerns were fueled by Fury’s refusal to take part in joint media functions to promote their event.
Fury explains that he was justified in being absent at the functions.
“I can clear that up in two seconds,” Fury said to MMA Fighting. “Basically, Jake Paul signed up into the world of professional boxing and I am a professional athlete, a professional boxer. I always have been and [ask] any professional boxer and they’ll tell you this — no one breaks camp, mid to the end [of training camp] to fly all the way to Saudi Arabia, have a 10 minute press conference, fly all the way back to Manchester, complete my camp then fly all the way back to Saudi Arabia again the following week.
“Now why the press conference couldn’t wait until a week later on fight week is beyond me. Most big fights, they schedule press conferences on fight week. I don’t know what is going on there. I don’t know if he’s trying to play mind games or anything but that’s definitely not how it works.
“One man’s flying all over the globe, trying to get in the glitz and glamour, press conferences, whatever else, and one man’s in the gym training to annihilate this man. So I think the proof is in the pudding. You can see who the professional athlete is. I’m not interested in press conferences. I’m interested in completing my camp, which has been the best camp of my career and I’m ready to KO this man and get him out of the sport.”