Tommy Fury and Jake Paul have differing accounts of their first meeting - a secret gym session before either man had fought as a professional boxer.
By now, everybody in boxing knows the story of the two star fighters' infamous years-long feud, with two fight cancellations, whether they want to or not. But it is less widely known that Paul and Fury met three years before their first ever back-and-forth on social media, and almost five years before they would step in the ring together.
At the time, Fury was a year away from becoming a superstar through Love Island, and was simply Tyson Fury's brother who was awaiting his professional debut. The 'Gypsy King' had yet to win back the heavyweight title, and was in the midst of a sensational comeback that would lead him to his second world title at the end of the year against Deontay Wilder.
The elder Fury was training for his return at Ricky Hatton's Manchester gym, with Tommy also preparing for his turning over later that year. And in late summer of 2018, the facility became the short-term home for visiting American YouTube stars Jake and Logan Paul, who were due to face KSI and Deji at the Manchester Arena on August 25.
"It's a funny story," Fury muses as he recalls meeting the pair. " Jake Paul and Logan were in town for the fight with KSI and I trained at Ricky Hatton's gym. I was training with all the proper boxers and what-not, just a normal training day and they were in the gym. I saw them in the gym and I wasn't really fond of them at the time, I didn't know who they were but I knew about the KSI stuff."
A picture from that day has circulated the internet throughout the developing Paul and Fury feud that shows Tommy and Logan posing in front of a mirror. And the two headliners for Sunday's pay-per-view show have conflicting stories of why there is no such image with Jake. Tommy insists he never took one.
"His brother Logan was real nice," he explains. "He took pictures with everybody, but Jake never. Jake never took pictures with anybody. I feel like his brother Logan is what he is, a good businessman, a nice guy at heart. But Jake is genuinely a bit of a p**** to be honest. He didn't give anyone in the gym that day a picture and that says it all, really."
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On Jake's part, he promises that there was. He and his brother were hard at work, but had been seen taking photos during their brief stay in the North of England. And the YouTube star even attempted to contact the friend of Fury's who had taken this elusive picture, but couldn't convince him to make it public.
"I guess that's the start of when we met each other," Paul recalls, before flippantly passing comment that Fury had asked for a picture. When he's told that his rival had said that no such picture was taken, he looks surprised. "He did take a picture with me, he was a fan of Logan and I.
"What's really funny about that story is that he posted the picture with Logan and then a year later deleted it but it was still somewhere on the internet. He didn't post the one with me, but the picture is there and I had someone in secrecy try to get it, going undercover to try and get the person who had the picture to send it, but they wouldn't do it.
"Tommy's a fan, that's what's crazy about this whole entire thing. We get so wrapped up in the beef but he asked me for a picture and he asked Logan for a picture in Ricky Hatton's gym before the Deji fight."
