Tommy Fury now has less than 24 hours to confirm whether or not he will be able to resolve his travel VISA issues and make the trip to New York for his fight on August 6 against Jake Paul.
The 22-year-old brother of world champion Tyson Fury has been issued an ultimatum by YouTube star Paul, with the American declaring that Fury has until Wednesday morning to resolve his travel issues or face being replaced. There have been a host of names in the running, but Paul's coach BJ Flores has declared that there is a surprise name in the mix for the fight.
The former cruiserweight champion is a coach of the 25-year-old American and teased fans with a social media post suggesting that fans will be happy with the replacement lined up for the fight. "Nobody is going to believe who is coming next," he wrote.
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Nate Diaz, Anderson Silva, Sonny Bill Williams and even former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson have all been named as potential opponents. This will be the second time that Paul has had to seek an alternative opponent for one of his fights after Fury pulled out of their December fight citing illness and injury.
On that occasion he was replaced by Tyron Woodley, who was knocked out in the sixth round by Paul and there has been enthusiasm to see Fury vs Paul due to the Brit's status as a full-time professional boxer. However, the fight looks increasingly unlikely to be taking place due to the deadline running down.
In a tweet, Paul confirmed the ultimatum and the fact that he had three potential opponents lined up, explaining: "Tommy is officially out by Wednesday morning if he doesn’t go to the Embassy or come out of hiding," he wrote on social media. "Three other opponents lined up. I’m built different.".
Frank Warren, who was responsible for promoting Fury's last fight against Daniel Bocianski on the undercard of brother Tyson's fight against Dillian Whyte, has also offered his view on the situation, confirming that no appointment has been made yet.
The experienced promoter explained in an interview that no appointment had been made for Tommy to speak to the US Embassy before Wednesday's deadline and could empathise with the Paul camp. "[Tommy] has got to get to the Embassy, but no appointment has been made yet," Warren told iFLTV.
"I can understand where they're coming from. They've got a show to run or whatever and if we can't get it sorted out then obviously they'll go to another opponent so we'll just keep working on it and trying to make it happen."
