Tommy Fury was absent from his face-off with arch-rival Jake Paul.
After months of back-and-forth jibes and two cancelled flights, the pair will finally lock horns in the boxing ring at the Diriyah Arena in Saudi Arabia this Sunday. The British star came face-to-face in London with the YouTube star to announce their event last month, but missed their launch press conference in the Middle East.
His promoter George Warren claimed this was due to a private and personal matter, and now a reason for failing to attend the stare down has emerged. A snap of Fury alongside recently turned pro boxer Irishman Cathal Crowley was posted on Twitter.
The pair were in the ring and appeared as though they had just finished a training session, which Cowley appeared to confirm. “Great experience out in Bolton helping Tommy get ready for his fight with Jake Paul,” the Irishman wrote.
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“While Jake Paul was chatting s**t at a press conference Me and Tommy were doing 8 hard rounds of sparring.” His absence from the press conference sparked fears among many that he could once again pull out from the showdown.
But last week the 2019 Love Island star attempted to put those fears to bed, guaranteeing he will make it to Saudi Arabia for arguably the biggest fight of his career this weekend. “At the end of the day, if I cared about what people thought about me I probably wouldn’t be in this position in the first place,” Fury told Mirror Fighting.
“I don’t care what anybody thinks about me as long as God knows I’m doing good, my family; my missus and my baby. They’re the opinions that I care about. At the end of the day, everyone’s going to have an opinion, let them think what they’re going to think.
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“I will be there bright and early in Saudi Arabia, ready for this. There’s no worries of me not showing up to this fight. The two previous fights that didn’t go ahead were completely out of my hands, they had nothing to do with me whatsoever.
“What happened is what happened, but I am fit, I am conditioned, I’m here, I’m ready and I will be in Saudi don’t worry about that.” Fury was forced to cancel the fight on two previous occasions having broken his rib in December 2021, before pulling the plug on their scheduled showdown last August after being unable to fly to the US.
Now the highly-anticipated fight is just days away from taking place, and should Paul take the win, he is set to receive a world ranking.