Is Dana White trying to help Tommy Fury derail the Jake Paul hype train? Paul certainly thinks so.
Jake Paul may not be fighting a former UFC fighter for his fifth professional boxing bout, but that doesn’t mean the match doesn’t have angles connecting to our sport. According to Paul, UFC president Dana White is once again trying to tip the scales towards Jake’s defeat by opening the doors to the UFC Performance Institute to his opponent, Tommy Fury.
Fury, the little half-brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, is set to fight Paul on December 18th in a bout that marks the first time Jake Paul will fight someone with professional boxing experience. Paul has defeated all four of his past opponents — a YouTuber, an NBA player, Ben Askren, and Tyron Woodley — none of whom have ever clocked a second of actual fight time in a boxing ring.
And while this match up is definitely in response to the critics that say Paul wouldn’t beat anyone with an iota of real boxing experience, “The Problem Child” isn’t shy to admit he thinks Tommy Fury is more of a combat sports con job than the Pauls ever were.
“Tommy claims to have been doing this his whole life, and he has the amateur career, and he’s been around it, that is true,” Paul said during a press conference over the weekend (via MMA Fighting). “But he hasn’t worked as hard as me. I see a green guy who hasn’t sparred enough times and has only been put in there with opponents that were meant to lose. This is his first real test where his opponent isn’t some guy that’s going to flop over.”
“You’re going to see that. You’re going to see a fighter who is a virgin, in my opinion. He has no idea what he’s getting himself into. This is his first time under the big lights on the big stage, and he’s going to crack under pressure.”
Paul took some time off from trashing Fury to go in on Dana White.
“Dana, thank you again for promoting my fights,” Paul said. “You literally tee up every single fight for me perfectly. You place bets against me, I prove you wrong. You try to bring coaches for my opponents so they can beat me. You’re letting Tommy Fury train at the UFC Performance Institute. Give it up, guy. Give it up.”
As for Tommy Fury and the UFC Performance Institute, he has indeed been there training as confirmed by photos from other UFC fighters in the compound.
We wouldn’t take that as some sort of implicit endorsement of Tommy Fury by Dana White, though. Plenty of boxers end up at the Performance Institute, like Billy Joe Saunders when he fought Saul “Canelo” Alvarez earlier this year, and you know Dana White loves him some Canelo to the tune of $100,000.
“‘Fight a real boxer. When’s he going to fight a guy his own age?’” Jake continued, referring to recent criticisms from White. “Whatever Dana White is constantly f—king saying, I’m doing it, and he’s mad that I’m doing it because he’s a control freak, and when he doesn’t have his fingers dipped into someone’s business, he doesn’t want to see them succeed, and he tries to bring them down. But he’s not smart enough to realize that every single time he talks about me, it just makes my s—t grow up.”