Anthony Taylor, Jake Paul's sparring partner and the last man to fight Tommy Fury, tells the Betway Insider he knew their fight would never go ahead on December 18.
MMA fighter Anthony Taylor claims Tommy Fury’s decision to pull out of his big-money fight with Jake Paul can only have come from his father, John Fury.
The clash between the YouTuber-turned-boxer and boxer-turned-Love Island contestant was slated to take place on 18 December, but Fury withdrew 12 days before the fight, citing a broken rib and chest infection.
Tyron Woodley will step in to fight Paul for the second time as Fury’s replacement, and the former UFC welterweight champion is the {ODDS:847034702:21/10} underdog in the online betting odds.
Taylor is a sparring partner of Paul’s and was the last man to fight Fury, losing to the Englishman on points in a six-rounder back in August.
In our exclusive interview, Taylor claims that Fury’s father, ‘Big John’, was behind the decision to withdraw from the fight, and that he should have told his son to shake off his ailments and “suck it up”.
“It was big John Fury’s decision to pull Tommy out,” Taylor says. “Big John’s the head trainer and he decides whether Tommy fights or not. I can’t believe it. Big John should have told Tommy to suck it up.
“You’ve got someone like Deontay Wilder, who three weeks before his fight had his daughter going through surgery; there are people fighting all the time with broken hands before a fight, we don’t see or hear them here complaining like Tommy is.
“If Mickey Theo, the guy Big John Fury has had some beef with, had a son, he definitely would have made his son take this fight. I don’t know why Big John is not allowing Tommy to take it.
“I don’t care who you are, anybody in the world with a broken rib and a flu is going to fight Jake Paul for a million dollars. That’s what Tommy was getting, a million dollars. Tommy Fury in his last fight against me made $15,000 dollars and now you’re telling me that you don’t want to fight and make a million because you got a broken rib and a flu? It can’t be true.”
Fury is famously the brother of Tyson Fury, the current WBC heavyweight champion and No. 5 ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Taylor claims that Tommy is not made of the same strong stuff as Tyson, who he believes would never pull out of a fight in this manner.
“You heard what Tyson Fury said? He said Tommy can have a broken arm, broken ribs, one left leg arm tied behind his back, no hands, and on his worst day he would still turn up and beat Jake Paul,” says Taylor. “He said all of this and now Tommy is pulling out.
“I’ve been saying this for a long time – Tyson and Tommy are not cut from the same cloth. Tyson is that strong Bounty paper towel and Tommy is a cheap toilet tissue… I knew that Tommy was going to pull out.”
Taylor also questions the truth behind Fury’s rib injury. He instead speculates that the Englishman spent too much time celebrating his brother’s win over Deontay Wilder in October, and is therefore in no condition to fight.
“The real reason he’s out of this fight isn’t because of some injury, it’s because of his physical conditioning,” Taylor says. “He was so busy partying with his brother after Tyson won that fight, that he’s now in no good condition to fight.
“Tommy also originally thought was fighting in February, so he’s now in no condition to fight.
As a sparring partner of Paul’s and a former opponent of Fury’s, Taylor is in a unique position to judge both fighters.
He believes Fury is not yet the finished product, and that he has a lot of improving to do to beat Paul, who – unlike Fury, he says – is “in the gym all the time”.
“Tommy is still green at this very moment,” Taylor says. “And he’s still young. Jake is in the gym all the time, while Tommy was probably out still celebrating. Tommy did not have a really full train camp for this.
“He thought he was guaranteed the win because he’s from a fighting family. But let me tell you, if this fight ever does get made, Tommy is in for a rude awakening!
“There’s no way Tommy was going to be any better than when he fought me anyway. It was not possible to make the big improvements they were talking about in such a short period of time.
“Tommy would have been the same Tommy when he fought me and I know exactly what he’s all about as I was the last person to step into a room with him! So trust me on this.”
