Love Island winner Jack Fincham is under no illusions about how fans will perceive his fight with American Anthony Taylor in Dubai on Sunday.
Four years after winning the ITV reality show with then-girlfriend Dani Dyer, Fincham is making his highly-anticipated professional boxing bow after a 26-fight amateur career. Across the ring from him will be the bombastic former MMA fighter Taylor, whose most famous fight came against Fury last year when he went the distance with Fincham's fellow islander.
Fury struggled over four rounds to get a grip on Taylor's awkward style, and while he comfortably won every round on all scorecards fans were unimpressed with his performance. And should Fincham perform similarly or manage to get a stoppage victory, the talk amongst fans and promoters will likely be the same around a fight between the pair.
"I think after this it's natural that the conversation people will be having is about me and Tommy," Fincham told Mirror Fighting . "I'm just focusing on what's in front of me because I could have taken so many easier fights than this... I wouldn't say at this point [if I'd beat Tommy].
"In everyone else's eyes this is my first fight and I think it's idiotic when you start calling someone out who is a very good fighter. So for me to sit here and start calling people out I think you look like an idiot. I think I haven't got a right at the minute to say, 'I want KSI, I want this person or that person,' because it'd just look silly.
"You can't not even have one and then start calling people out! You've got to show people what you can do and then you can go 'right, this is where I want to take it next'. Rather than just calling out the world, that will do you no favours I don't think."
Taylor has been doing just that throughout the build-up, engaging in verbal battles with Mayweather himself as well as both Tommy and his dad John Fury. And Fincham wonders if Taylor is aware of who he is and his background in the sport, or if he could be taking the fight lightly given his history as a reality TV star.
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"He put a couple of tweets out and that and I don't think he knows me," Fincham continued. "I think he thought that I just wanted to put on a pair of gloves and see what happens. I can assure you that I'm not just an X-Factor guy or a reality TV star - let me assure you of that."
He and Fury have discussed the Taylor fight in private, as well as their tenures on Love Island, which is known to be a particularly strenuous experience for contestants who stay the course to the finals like they did. They share a closeness knowing the experience of being on the show, and after Sunday they will have shared another unique moment.
"We just talked in general," Fincham said. "We talked about Anthony and that was it really. It was more about boxing on this stage and asking him how I handle things. It's not your local sport centre if you know what I mean!"
