When Tommy Fury finally makes the walk for his fight with Jake Paul, the clock in Diriyah will have ticked past midnight, making the date February 27.
It may seem insignificant, but that date marks two years exactly since his routine bout with Scott Williams on a behind-closed-doors covid-era Frank Warren show. It was to be the last time that he managed to stop an opponent when he got rid of the winless journeyman in his second fight after the pandemic.
Little did he or the viewing public know that it would be the catalyst for a feud with one of boxing's most notorious rising stars, and a huge payday.
In the aftermath of his win, notorious Twitter troll ReallyNiceDerek shared a graphic showing the reported TV numbers for that weekend's boxing. The comical numbers showed Canelo Alvarez vs Avnyi Yildrim garnering just 105,000 viewers and Fury vs Williams on BT Sport attracting a whopping 1.9million against an average of only 58,000.
Tommy's brother Tyson; the world heavyweight champion, was duped. He shared the graphic to his millions of fans with a caption congratulating his brother on record-breaking viewership figures. "Tommy slaughtered to competition over the weekend," he wrote. "Including America’s biggest boxing star Canelo Alvarez. Wow, just wow."
But the key point was his callout to rival broadcasters, asking them "where you at". DAZN, Sky Sports and even the champion's own American outlet ESPN all bore the brunt of his boast, but one further tag would change everything; @JakePaul.
Tommy Fury had a minimal history with the Pauls, having previously met Jake and Logan at the Hatton gym when they made their debuts on a white collar show in Manchester. But there was no real feud between the pair until Paul shared a video telling Tyson to stop fighting his brother's battles and pushing for Tommy to call him out.
The Brit obliged, and a war of words over the coming months ensued. In the meantime, Jake dispatched of MMA legend Ben Askren while Tommy took care of his first opponent with a winning record in the tricky Scot Jordan Grant. The Askren fight set up a summertime showdown for Paul with former UFC champion Tyron Woodley, and Fury was signed up for the undercard.
Paul's team made sure to test the waters by putting the Brit in with MMA fighter Anthony Taylor, who had spent the previous few months in Puerto Rico as a sparring partner to the American. They were likely trying to gauge the ability level of Fury against someone with whom Paul had been tested in sparring, and Taylor did his best to unsettle the Brit in his American debut.
The brash MMA fighter came in as a monster underdog, but attempted to make up for his shortcomings in size by psyching out Fury with relentless trash talking. It was to be the perfect dry run for facing a famed troll such as Paul, as Taylor harangued his rival verbally throughout the build-up, clearly loving the same cameras that have always plagued the introverted Brit.
Ultimately, Fury comfortably took care of Taylor and won by unanimous decision, which was followed by a backstage altercation with Paul after he defeated Woodley in the main event. That it happened to take place right in the middle of a segment being filmed by BT Sport was surely a coincidence.
It didn't take long for Paul and Fury to ink a deal, despite issues over the $1million offer that was put towards the Brit by Most Valuable Promotions. The Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida was booked and December 18 was the set date for a US vs UK clash branded 'One Will Fall'.
However, the problems started from the word go. With Canelo Alvarez dragging the entire boxing media to Las Vegas for his clash with Caleb Plant, MVP capitalised and put on a major press conference with star names in attendance to launch the event just over a month out from fight night.
Paul enlisted the help of comedian Druski, Fury's new trainer SugarHill Steward committed to making an appearance and even undisputed super-lightweight world champion Josh Taylor showed up. The only problem? Tommy Fury was unable to make it.
The Brit had to race home due to an issue with his mother, and never returned to America in the lead-up to the bout. He had been due to occupy his brother's massive Las Vegas home and train with SugarHill as he prepared for his first ever main event, but opted instead to work with his brother and dad John from their base in Morecambe.
And with just two weeks to go until the fight, Fury was injured. While attempting to train through a chest infection, the story goes that he was punched bare-knuckle by a heavyweight training partner and broke a rib, which forced team doctor Usman Sajjad to pull him from the event.
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Tyron Woodley stepped in for a hastily-arranged rematch, and after he and Paul put on a snooze-inducing six rounds that was as hard to score as it was to watch, the YouTuber landed a massive right hand and ended up with the knockout of the year. It brought him to a new level of fame and boxing credibility, and calls for him to step up to a 'real boxer' amplified significantly.
Fury immediately took to the Queensberry Promotions YouTube channel to do an interview mocking the YouTuber, and insisting that he was keen for a rescheduling of the fight. He was thoroughly unimpressed by both Paul and Woodley, mocking them for their showing up to the knockout and generally expressing his distaste for the event.
Paul decided to take a break from the ring after four fights in less than 13 months and focus on promoting Amanda Serrano's undisputed super-lightweight world title effort against Katie Taylor at Madison Square Garden. That time allowed Fury to recover and get a fight in on his brother Tyson's world title undercard at Wembley Stadium against Daniel Bocianski whom he dominated.
And after building up a strong relationship with the famed New York City venue, Paul would announce that summer that he was returning, this time as a fighter. He and Serrano would share the headline spot in her home city as she would face Brenda Carabajal and he would announce his opponent at a later date.
Eventually, it was revealed Paul had been in talks with Fury for the bout, and at the eleventh hour they agreed to terms publicly. The fight was shortly thereafter made, and a press conference called in New York City where they would finally go head-to-head almost a year after their last meeting.
Fury headed down to London and began training under Shane McGuigan in the hopes of working with a coach who would be able to travel with him to America, which his father can't do. However, a visa issue saw Tommy turned away from the airport on the way to New York, and the bout eventually had to be scrapped for a second time.
Paul enlisted Hasim Rahman Jr before that bout too fell by the wayside over weight problems from the Baltimore man, and he had to wait until Halloween weekend to face UFC legend Anderson Silva. After dropping the Brazilian in the eighth round and moving to 6-0 as a professional, it appeared that Paul may have silenced the critics.
He signed up with PFL to make his MMA debut, likely next year, but he still had yet to answer the question 'how will Jake Paul do against a real boxer?' So he returned one last time to the Tommy Fury well, heading to London to square off with his rival after leaking the birth of his daughter much to the dismay of girlfriend Molly Mae Hague.
There was to be one last Fury faux pas when the Brit skipped the launch press conference for the fight in Riyadh, but he has since arrived in Saudi Arabia. After two years of build-up and countless near misses, it appears we are finally about to see Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury.
