After two attempts got KO'd, Love Island star Tommy Fury finally takes on YouTuber Jake Paul on Sunday night.
Billed as The Truth, the two relatively new boxers will go toe to toe in Saudi Arabia’s Diriyah, in front of millions around the globe. In a fraught press conference, Paul changed the contract with less than 48 hours to go, telling Fury he’d double the prize money to $2m if Paul loses – but if the Brit loses, he gets nothing except his pay-per-view cut.
Neither are world champ material, but their grudge match is hotly anticipated.
Here’s what we know about the duelling duo...
Jake Paul
Height : 6ft 1in
Weight : 13st 5lb
Record : 6 fights, 6 wins, 0 losses
Net worth : £41.6m
Social media followers : 70m
Nickname : Problem Child
With more than 20 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, Jake is one of the biggest vloggers of his generation.
It all started in 2013, when his pranks and brash humour got him noticed on short-lived video app Vine. From there, he bagged a role on the Disney Channel show Bizaardvark, but was axed during the second series after his West Hollywood neighbours went public with complaints about his stunts.
They involved starting a huge fire in his garden and screeching his dirt bike up and down the street. When he doxxed himself – released his own address online – crowds of fans turned up, and residents threatened legal action.
Paul, 26, focused on building up his YouTube following, with dubious schemes like teaching teens how to become influencers in $7 videos. More controversies emerged, including Paul being caught on camera rapping the N-word.
He later staged two fake weddings, one with his ex-girlfriend Erika Costell, and in July 2020 was criticised for throwing a raucous party at his mansion despite high Covid cases in California. The following year, he was investigated by Puerto Rico’s environmental department after footage surfaced showing him driving over a protected beach during turtle nesting season.
Paul started boxing in 2018. Ahead of Sunday’s match, he vowed to “decapitate” Fury, who he outweighs by a stone. After a three-year war of words, and threats of legal action from Paul after Fury pulled out the second time, the multi-millionaire vlogger-turned-fighter is eager to taste blood. He said in a mocking video: “Tommy, I hope you’ve enjoyed these last few moments of your career. This is it, you’re going to be retired from boxing after this.”
The World Boxing Council is giving winner of this fight a cruiserweight world ranking. The fight’s pay cheques are high. Paul’s contract – before the press conference drama – bagged him $3.2million (£2.6m) just to fight, along with 65 per cent of the pay-per-view fees, giving him an overall purse of $8.6m (£7.1m).
Fury, meanwhile, was to trouser $2m (£1.6m) to appear and 35 per cent of the PPV money, giving him a payday of $4.5m (£3.7m). The winner was to get a bonus of $1m. Fury will be the first “real” boxer Paul has faced, although he beat former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva last October.
Tommy Fury
Height : 6ft
Weight : 12st 5lb
Record : 8 fights, 8 wins, 0 losses
Net worth : Just over £1million
Social media followers : 5m
Nickname : TNT
The 23-year-old has boxing in his blood. He is the younger brother of two-time world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who has jokingly told his sibling he can “stay in Saudi” if he loses to his rival.
The self-styled Gypsy King has also promised to retire from boxing entirely if Tommy crashes out. Tommy and Tyson’s dad, John Fury, is a professional bare-knuckle fighter who taught his boys how to spar growing up in Manchester.
But Tommy, partner of fellow Love Islander Molly-Mae Hague and dad to their baby girl Bambi, wants a world title and to be able to headline his own fights off the back of this grudge match.
He said: “From being six, seven, training in a shed with my dad. Growing up with nothing, being a teenager, aged 18, 19, I had 50p in my pocket for the bus fare. I wasn’t like this guy, getting all this from YouTube, all this glamour. Four years ago I had absolutely nothing!”
After finding fame in the Majorcan villa in 2019, Tommy and Molly-Mae – who narrowly missed out on the Love Island prize – moved in together in Manchester and he got stuck in to training to go pro. Since the birth of Bambi in January, Tommy has been criticised for leaving his young family to train.
Molly-Mae has been honest about finding it difficult holding the fort alone. She sparked concern in December, when she was heavily pregnant, by telling fans: “I have to remind him that I’m two months away from giving birth.”
Doubts have swirled around whether the bout would ever happen. The first match was cancelled when Tommy pulled out with a chest infection and a broken rib. The second date, in August 2022, fell through when Tommy was prevented from entering the United States at the airport over unresolved visa issues.
Who wins on Sunday: Jake Paul or Tommy Fury? Have your say in the comments!
But he hit back at rumours he was deliberately dodging the fight, saying: “Third time’s a charm and I’m in super-fit condition . I’m ready to put this all to bed. To even mention my name in the same sentence as [him] is disrespectful to me, who’s been boxing my whole life, and I’m going to clinically knock this guy out early.”
Dad John, who has been central in coaching his boy, has no doubt in Tommy. He said: “When he started out, he was meant to do big stuff, being Tyson Fury’s brother, but this kid survives on pressure. I wouldn’t have my son sat here if I didn’t think he could deliver. We’ve come here to do one thing: knock Jake Paul out.”
