Jake Paul suffered his first defeat in boxing after Tommy Fury won a split decision over an eight-round battle in Saudi Arabia.
The highly publicized fight saw both fighters experience their moments, but Fury’s commitment to basic boxing principles as he fought behind a lead jab to continually outlander Paul led to Fury’s victory. Fury did have to survive a brief knockdown in the final round but he quickly got back to his feet and continued to slug it out until the final bell sounded.
When it was over, two judges gave Fury the fight with the same 76-73 score while the third official had it 75-74 for Paul. That was still enough for Fury to get the win as he moves to 9-0 in his career while Paul drops to 6-1 overall.
“For the past two and a half years, this is all that’s consumed my life,” Fury said afterwards. Fury said, “Broke my ribs and denied access [to the United States]. Everyone thought that I was scared. Tonight, I made my own legacy. I am Tommy Fury. This fight is dedicated to Bambi, my baby girl at home. My misses, you are my love and I cannot wait to meet you. This fight was for you.
“All the way through these two and a half years, I had a dream, I had a vision that I would win this fight and no one believed me. Now I can stand up and everybody can take note. It was a lot of pressure, but I pulled through. To me, this is a fight for a world championship. I trained so hard for this. This was my destiny, this was my fate.”
This was by far Fury’s most complete performance while facing a bigger threat in Paul than virtually every other opponent he’s beaten thus far in his career.
As the fight began, Paul was told by his coaches that he should stay aggressive and not backwards. He followed this by taking over the middle of the ring while Fury was on the outside. Fury wanted to create fast combos while Paul was using his left hand as a paw and followed it with the strong right hook.
A left jab was Fury’s best punch early and that allowed him to start setting up his power shots but Paul was defending well as he continued to try and walk down his opponent. When Fury did move forward, Paul was trying to time his counters and loading up on his punches.
Fury began to increase his output in the fourth round. He started to create combinations. It was clear that Paul was struggling to cut off the ring, which led to him chasing Fury although he still clipped the former reality TV star with a hard left hook during one exchange.
Midway into the fifth round Paul was unable to score a point due to punches in the head. However, Fury pounded him with an overhand left and that would have been his most powerful punch to date.
Throughout the fight, Paul was ducking his head when throwing his left jab and Fury finally started to make him pay with a well-timed uppercut in return.
Just as Fury seemed to be gaining momentum, the referee stopped the fight and took a point off the British boxer. The referee called Paul for the same foul with punches in the back of Fury’s head. However, neither fighter was deemed to be egregious enough that a point deduction should be made.
As time started to tick away towards the final bell, Fury was still the busier fighter and it appeared that Paul was losing energy. Paul delivered a punch to Fury that knocked him off the mat.
Fury was quick to get back to his feet but in a close fight those moments are crucial. Once the fight restarted, Fury continued launching punches in a final flurry as the contest came to an end and the judges obviously gave him the nod by split decision.
Paul was disappointed to learn that he had suffered from some illness and injury in his training camp, but he paid tribute to Fury for a great job.
” Paul stated that he felt “flat”. “I got sick twice really bad in this camp, injured my arm. Although it wasn’t the best performance, I still lost. Not making any excuses. It wasn’t the best performance I could have done. I felt a little flat. Like I said, we’re going to come back and get that ‘W’. I will come back stronger.
” All respect to Tommy. He won. He won. I’ll come back. We deserve a rematch. The fight was great, it was close, and I’m not sure if the judges agreed with me. I got a 10-8 round twice so it is what it is. This is .”
boxing
Paul had an automatic rematch clause inserted into his contract so he can already demand a second shot at Fury and by all accounts it appears that’s what will happen.
“This is definitely a humbling experience,” Paul said. “I’ll take it on the chin, get back in the gym, and we can run it back because I think we put on an amazing show for the fans tonight.”
For his part, Fury sounded more than ready for another fight with Paul, especially given the attention the initial matchup received.
“This is my first main event, I’m only going to go stronger. Fury stated, “I’m only going bigger.” “If he wants a rematch, bring it on.”
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/2/26/23615918/tommy-fury-beats-jake-paul-by-split-decision-in-back-and-forth-battle-over-8-rounds?rand=96749
