Tommy Fury has defended himself after he came under fire for leaving Molly-Mae Hague home alone just weeks after the birth of their first child together. The boxer had to say an emotional goodbye to his girlfriend, who he met on Love Island in 2019, and their newborn daughter weeks before his fight with Jake Paul.
The 23-year-old has since spent his days catching up on quality time with his influencer partner and their little girl, Bambi, after finally facing the YouTuber-turned-MMA fighter in their grudge match in Saudi Arabia on February 26. Tommy's long-standing feud with Jake, 26, came to a conclusion at Diriyah Arena and Tommy took a standing count for a knockdown in the final round – with the British fighter claiming to have slipped – but had earlier done enough to earn a split decision on the judges' cards.
And Tommy, who is the half-brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, appeared emotional after his victory as he dedicated his win to his girlfriend and Bambi, who was born on January 23. During his appearance on Good Morning Britain days after his win, the new dad heaped praise on Molly-Mae, saying he 'owes everything' to her and their baby girl.
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"At the end of the day this victory is for them, it was for those two. At the end of the day, I've been in training camp and Molly's been being an amazing mother," he told Ben Shephard and Susanna Reid. "She's the best woman any man could ever ask for. She's done everything. All the hard miles at the start because I was in the training camp and I owe everything to her and Bambi. So like I said, this victory, this win is for them."
He was also quizzed on Loose Women when he appeared live on the panel on Thursday (March 9) where he said: "I'm not bothered about anyone's opinion, to be honest. As long as my family and my missus and my children think I'm doing alright, that's all that matters to me.
"And people can say what they want, but I'm away for her, to make sure she has a better future." On the decision to leave his bundle of joy, Tommy admitted: "It was very tough there was a lot going on in this build-up to this.
"Obviously, Bambi, my little girl, was born six weeks ago. So I was kind of having a lot of FaceTime calls. But I was constantly switching trying to be a fighting, aggressive man getting ready for war and then trying to be the daddy, trying to split myself into a million pieces. And you just can't do it, so there was a lot of phone calls, a lot of conversations but we got through it."
Tommy also joked that he had 'no choice' but to call his baby daughter Bambi as he finally shared the 'amazing' story behind her name. The new parents came in for some criticism when they revealed their baby girl's Disney-inspired name last month.
The couple announced the arrival of their first child on January 30 they shared their first picture with their little girl, who they didn't confirm until later that they had named Bambi, and confirmed she made her entrance into the world a week earlier on January 23.
Molly-Mae and Tommy, both 23, shared a sweet black and white snap, which showed the pair beaming in the hospital with their bundle of joy, and simply captioned it: "23/01/23." It was 24 hours later that they confirmed their Disney-inspired name choice for their first child together.
Appearing on the Loose Women panel, Tommy was asked about his new life as a dad and about his and Molly-Mae's controversial name choice. "It’s a really amazing story to be honest, because obviously in the villa, we were talking about it," he told the Loose Women panel, which included Charlene White, Judi Love, Nadia Sawalha and Jane Moore, after they mentioned a time on Love Island where they were given fake baby's to look after.
"Then when we left, we were talking about it even more, having babies," Tommy continued. "There was only one name for our little girl, and it was Bambi because when Molly was young, she only ever wanted to call her little daughter one thing, and that was Bambi. So I’m not gonna be that guy to say no. And I love the name anyway."
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