John Fury claims that his son, Tommy, "wasn't exactly in training" for his doomed fight with Jake Paul and would have needed to lose over two stone to make weight.
The Love Island star was set to face Paul at Madison Square Garden on August 6. But he was forced to pull out of a second fight date with his American rival due to a visa issue that saw him turned away at the airport last weekend, when he attempted to travel for a launch press conference.
Fury's father is now claiming that he had been having a less-than-ideal camp before the bout was cancelled, particularly as his own involvement was limited. John is touring the UK with his son, Tyson, and claims that he wasn't able to deal with Tommy as much as he usually would.
“Tommy wasn't exactly in training," John told DAZN. "He'd only had about 10 days because he'd been on holiday and it was a surprising thing for him. I was a way out of it doing these tours and being busy elsewhere so I never got the chance to look at it properly. When I've paid attention, I noticed the whole thing wasn't right anyway.
"But I said ‘Okay, it is what it is, if you want to go over there and box him, do it. You're experienced enough now and it's a 50-50 platform. I know you could be fitter, you're overweight, but it's entirely up to yourself because I'm busy and I can't do it.’ So, he said 'Okay then, I'll do my own thing and I'll go fight him anyway because I can beat him.’"
The development would be strange considering John has a strong grip over his youngest son's career and has previously expressed how proud he is of working with him. But he claims that Tommy was having a poor camp after a sun holiday, with the fight being hastily arranged.
It's a stark contrast from what Tommy has publicly stated, which is that he would be ready and willing to fight Paul in any other location on August 6. Paul floated the idea of moving the event to the UK, in exchange for $15million from the Brit's promoter Frank Warren, but that idea never came to pass.
What do you make of what John Fury is saying about his son's training? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
In the absence of his father's coaching, it was believed that Fury had moved to London to begin training with Shane McGuigan. Reports indicate that McGuigan was with Fury when he was turned away from a flight at London Heathrow before the press conference.
“Beating a Jake Paul is not a problem, by the way. We don't look at him as any kind of a threat at all,” Fury senior also said in an explosive interview, before claiming that Tommy is currently 231lb - which is 31lb over the cruiserweight limit and 42lb heavier than his career-highest weight. “I think he realises now that he's got to get full time training, he needs a good eight-week camp.
"I'll tweak him up whenever I can when I'm home for a few days here and there during the tour. I can have a look in and see what he's doing. At the minute we're just working on cardio and weight loss because he's something like 105kg at the minute, he's got to get right down to about 90, so he's got a bit of work to do.”
