Jake Paul rejected Team Fury’s request for VADA testing.
The Jake Paul show rolls into town again this month with the influencer turned combat sports disruptor slated to take on Tommy Fury on Showtime. Fury, the younger brother of Tyson Fury, promises to be the biggest threat to Paul’s undefeated record. This will be the first fight in Paul’s young career where he will be fighting someone with actual pro boxing experience.
Just like he did with his last opponent, Tyron Woodley, Paul has added some silliness into the bout agreement with Fury to make the fight a little more viral. With the former UFC welterweight champion Paul stipulated that the loser needed to get a humiliating tattoo.
This time around, if Fury loses to Paul he is obligated to legally change his name to Tommy Fumbles, a reference to Paul’s claim that Fury almost ‘fumbled the bag’ during their fight negotiation.
Something that isn’t in Paul and Fury’s contract is an agreement to submit to drug testing provided by VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency). Team Fury have claimed they wanted this provision in the deal, but that Paul rejected the idea.
Former UFC champion Michael Bisping recently spoke on YouTube about Paul vs. Fury. He praised Paul for his ability to go 4-0 in pro boxing and make plenty of noise in the combat sports world. However, he said it was ‘suspect’ that the ‘Problem Child’ wouldn’t want to submit to VADA testing in his upcoming fight.
“Just recently, we’ve seen the rise of Jake Paul,” said Bisping (ht MMA News). “Jake Paul is doing great things in combat sports and he’s young in his career, but I just saw, just a moment ago, MMA Junkie just did an article, and they said that, MMA Junkie said that he’s refused a drug test for his latest fight. Well, not refused a drug test, he hasn’t allowed drug testing to happen for his latest fight against Tommy Fury, which is bizarre. He’s put in all kinds of stipulations about, ‘You gotta change your name to Tommy Fumbles’ and this and that.
“There’s all kinds of things in there, all kinds of stipulations, lots of rules, lots of work for the lawyers to put in. But he refused, or said he didn’t want, to have VADA testing in there, which is, I don’t know, that’s a little suspect. If you’ve got nothing to hide, test the shit out of me, test the shit out of whoever.”
Despite VADA not being involved in the fight, Paul will be subject to drug testing by the local commission. In this case, with the fight happening in Tampa, FL, that testing will be administered by the Florida State Boxing Commission.