Jake Paul has accused Tyson Fury of being scared to fight Anthony Joshua in a massive heavyweight showdown.
As recently as last summer, a deal was all but inked between the duo to fight for the undisputed heavyweight title in Saudi Arabia. But it fell through due to a legal issue on Fury's end that required him to face Deontay Wilder for a third time despite brutally knocking him out a year prior.
Joshua would ultimately lose his WBA, WBO and IBF titles to Oleksandr Usyk, pouring the years of negotiations between the pair down the drain. Since then, Fury has retired after two WBC defences against Wilder and Dillian Whyte, meaning the likelihood of fans ever being given a Joshua vs Fury bout is dwindling.
And Paul believes that the reason boxing had fallen behind other sports, particularly MMA and their lead promotion the UFC, was to do with the big fights not being made. He is set to fight Hasim Rahman Jr next month and argues that his negotiation tactics, which he claims includes threatening to pull out if he isn't paid more than his contracted purse, are indicative of boxing's problems.
"It just goes to show that these guys want to fight me until it's time to actually fight me," Paul said during an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, before launching into his annoyance at Fury's fear of Joshua. "They all want the money but then they decide they need more money.
"You see Tommy Fury do it, even Tommy's dad was like 'come fight us in the UK for less money'. So I tweet him 'come fight me in the UK for $500,000 [Fury's initial purse to fight Paul was $2million] and Tommy says 'I wouldn't get out of bed for $500k'. You just said you'd take less money!
"It's just a reoccurring theme and I think this is why boxing was such a dying sport before I came into it. I literally saved the whole, entire sport, basically single-handedly along with some other heavyweights and some lightweights, but mostly because of me boxing was saved.
"And I'm starting to realise what the problem was, it's all of these fighters who don't want to man up and actually make these fights happen. That's why you don't see the biggest fights.
"F***ing Tyson Fury is afraid to fight [Anthony] Joshua. Tyson Fury is afraid to fight [current unified champion; Oleksandr] Usyk. Why hasn't Gervonta Davis fought Devin Haney? Gervonta and Ryan Garcia? Why aren't these big fights happening? Because one of these parties is scared."
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Paul believes that the solution to save the sport's image and salvage major fights, is to mandate the major events. In most major tournaments, such as football or even MMA, leagues will dictate when teams or athletes will compete, with forfeits for those who don't appear.
The YouTuber-turned-boxer, who has a 5-0 professional boxing record as well as an amateur wrestling background, has a long-running feud with the UFC's boss Dana White. But he admits that the upside of his control over the promotion means that top fighters are constantly facing one another as mandated.
"Who knows which party is scared," he continued. "But that's why boxing is dying, it's because these fights aren't mandatory. No one can force them to do these fights like they can in the UFC.
"That's why I give the UFC props, that's why I give Dana White his props. But it p***es me off because I just want to get into the ring and do my f***ing job, put on a show for the fans and I just can't do it."
