Tommy Fury has admitted that the sole reason that he is pursuing a fight with Jake Paul is for money, and not the personal grudge between the pair.
In fact, the Brit insists that while he does want to beat the YouTuber and put a stop to his abrasive boxing movement, he isn't too bothered about what his rival says in the efforts to hype a fight. They have been going back-and-forth since the beginning of 2021, and appear to have finally inked a deal to fight in Saudi Arabia next month where Fury will reportedly pocket $2.5million.
Despite being keen to "earn his stripes", Fury admitted that the financial incentive of taking what has become a two-year detour from his main boxing career to focus on Paul has become too much for him to resist. And particularly now with his girlfriend Molly Mae Hague due to have their first child at any moment, he is excited about the prospect of a massive pay-per-view purse.
"I was earning my stripes," he told Rob Moore on the Disruptors podcast. "But if you want to slap millions of pounds in front of my face to fight Jake Paul, why am I not going to do that? I've got a family to feed now any day - the reason I've taken the Jake Paul fight is it's financially good.
"There is [a part of me that wants to shut him up] but he doesn't get underneath my skin like that. He can't get underneath my skin because I know what he's doing. He's a whizz on social media, he's made a living off being an idiot, arrogant and calling people out. It is what it is but he can't get underneath my skin.
"All I see with Jake Paul is a business and if you want me to beat a man who can't fight and throw millions of pounds in my face, not a problem, sign me up and that's purely what this is. I've described it all the time as being on Route 66 and I need to stop off in my campervan, fill it up and get back on the road.
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"I am on a straight and narrow road to world titles. But you want me to take a slight detour for an awful lot of fuel, pick that up and then jump back on the road? That's exactly what I'm doing here at the end of the day. This is a business, you've got to use your head and every fighter in my position would take that fight if it got offered to them."
Asked if he feels Paul is a legitimate fighter, Fury responded: "No, I don't. I believe he's a man who got it in his head that boxing is a good idea, he can make some money from it and see what happens. There's two completely different people here, I've grown up doing this and it's all I've ever wanted to do.
"I'm not doing it for money, I'm doing it for passion and my dream. This man is just dropping into the sport, dropping in and dropping out seeing what he can do. Making a quick buck - the way the world's gone at the minute it's absolutely crazy and before going on Love Island, even after coming out of Love Island before all this Jake Paul YouTube boxing stuff started, I was fighting legitimate people."
