On December 18, Jake Paul was supposed to fight rival Tommy Fury in the ring. However, Fury backed out after an injury made him incapable of fighting. Boxing fans have been anxiously waiting for the day where these two hot-headed fighters will finally go face-to-face, but it looks like that day isn’t coming anytime soon.
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Losing interest
Recently, 24-year-old Paul said that he was no longer interested in fighting Tommy Fury. In fact, he went so far as to say that he would fight his brother or his dad over the former Love Island star. He said while appearing on the Boxing with Chris Mannix podcast:
Of course. He wants the payday. But I’ve said it before, I don’t want to take the fight with him. He doesn’t deserve it.
And I would rather fight Tyson [Fury]. I would want Tyson to come down to cruiserweight and that would be a bigger fight. So I’d rather fight Tyson or his dad. His dad, John, did a better job of promoting the fight than Tommy did. So I would fight his brother or his dad before I’d fight Tommy.
Tommy Fury has also admitted that fighting Jake Paul wouldn’t necessarily be a big highlight for his career, but he is still adamant on defeating him in the ring. He said:
The fact of the matter is there's unfinished business here and this fight needs to take place, because how can he be serious about fighting if he's never fought a boxer before?
For now, it seems as though the fight between Paul and Fury will not be happening in the near future, especially given that Paul has already set his eye on fighting another huge name in the boxing world.
Who is his next target?
The next man on Jake Paul’s hit list is Julio César Chávez Jr., a Mexican professional boxer and former WBC middleweight champion. Paul believes that Chávez Jr. will be able to give him a challenge that Fury probably could not. He said:
He was a former world champion, and I know I could beat him. And you look at his record, it’s like 50 wins or something, and I don’t even know the losses, but it’s a good record. So that challenge excites me and I’m down.
Chávez Jr. has said that if Paul manages to win the fight, he would retire from his career. He told TV Boxeo:
If he beats me, I’ll retire; I don’t get paid. I don’t want money if I don’t beat him. Retirement [if I lose] [and I’m] not interested in his money if I do not win.
