Is Tommy Fury about to pull off one of the greatest boxing tricks in history? The Fury family are already laughing at the great coup they've pulled off, they say that they have pranked the prankster.
Before we examine exactly how Tommy Fury has pranked Jake Paul, let's take a look at a couple of past examples of great boxing ruses.
The Dancer
"I'm gonna dance! How's he gonna hit me? I'm gonna dance!"
Those were the immortal words of the late great Muhammad Ali before facing the ominous George Foreman in the Rumble In The Jungle. As Norman Mailer tells us in the documentary When We Were Kings, Ali had to walk past the heavy bag that Foreman pounded every day in the gym and the watermelon-sized dent he left in it.
In all of the press conferences leading up to the fight, Ali repeated over and over that he was too flight-footed for the plodding Foreman, too fast, too slick.
"I'm gonna dance!" He shouted over and over, louder and louder. Indeed, in the first round of the fight he did dance, and he hit Foreman with 12 right hand leads; which for an orthodox fighter is the slower punch to target and is a way of taunting your opponent.
But after that first round, Ali shelled up, he leaned back against the ropes, pulling his head away from Foreman's ferocious punches and covered his body as best he could in the now famous rope-a-dope strategy.
Round after round Foreman pounded on Ali's frame, hitting his arms, ribs, anywhere he could and then, suddenly, in the eighth round Foreman stopped punching. Ali, sensing Foreman had punched himself out, sprung off the ropes and aimed a barrage of punches at the big man's head. Ali knocked out Foreman and 'shocked the world' in one of the greatest tricks in boxing history.
The Hypnotist
In the early-to-mid 90s the British born boxer Chris Eubank dominated the middleweight scene. His fights with Nigel Benn are still today considered two of the greatest fights in middleweight history.
Eubank dominated the WBO Super Middleweight division for five years using his sublime counterpunching boxing style and a sharp wit. Eubank had got into the head of many a fighter, the incongruence of his soft lisping voice, delivering pseudo-intellectual platitudes as to the mental state of his opponents served to destroy his opponents mentally before he broke them physically in the ring.
So when a young up and coming Steve Collins was billed to fight Eubank in a title bout in Ireland, Collins decided that he would first match Eubank mentally before employing any pugilistic endeavours.
Collins claimed to have brought a hypnotist into his training camp. He said that this man had endowed him with unshakable confidence, and that there was no way on Earth that he could lose this fight.
Eubank responded in interview opining that perhaps such a tactic was beyond the rules of a fair fight. He stated that the mind was a very powerful tool, and a man who had been given such unshakable confidence might in fact be mortally dangerous.
On the night of the fight Eubank came out to his usual fanfare, a delayed ring walk, designed to make the challenger wait uncomfortably under the spotlights.
Eubank emerges, stalking toward the ring wearing the glare that has become synonymous with his reign. Tina Turner's classic 80s anthem 'Simply The Best' blaring on the stadium speakers.
Eubank pauses at the edge of the ring, glaring out at the crowd, with a final leap over the top rope and his traditional shuffle finally he deems Collins worthy to receive his steely gaze. This is a game and Eubank is the Games Master, he stares, you wilt, that's the drill.
This time Eubank observes a hooded figure in a black boxing robe, head down, two thin white wires protrude from the hood. But that's not the most shocking thing, next to Collins, right there in the ring is the man who has been on TV claiming to have hypnotised the boxer. Eubank is visibly taken aback, the man he is about to eviscerate is chillaxing in the corner listening to something, whilst this wild-haired man mutters in his ear.
Is it his mantra? Is he being hypnotised right now?!
The referee beckons the two gladiators to the centre of the ring. Eubank the champion strides forwards, eyes locked on his opponent, still crouched, eyes closed, head nodding. He has to be brought out of his reverie by his trainer, Collins looks for all the world like a man who has just been woken up at his train stop.
Collins went on to beat Eubank in a thrilling 12-round fight.
Afterwards, the Irishman admitted that the hypnotist thing was a complete ruse and he was just listening to some Beyonce on his iPod.
The Conman
Jake Paul started out as a celebrity Youtuber fighting another Youtuber, but soon turned pro. His fledgling career has been derided by the boxing community as he has been hand-picking opponents that are not boxers and are in his eyes, completely beatable.
Paul knows that if his career is to continue, then he needs the credibility of beating a boxer. So he chose Tommy Fury, brother to the heavyweight champion of the world Tyson Fury.
Tommy turned pro in December of 2018, however he soon
appeared on Love Island the reality TV show in 2019. Even though he'd won his first two bouts, this immediately gave Tommy the tag of 'not serious' when it came to boxing.
Indeed the paparazzi pictures backed up what everyone thought they already knew, he seemed more interested in partying and modelling.
By the time Paul was getting ready to fight Tyron Woodley, Fury had had another three wins to his name and him and his family started taunting the American. At first Paul poo-pooed the idea of a fight, saying that Fury did not have a big enough name and wasn't skilled enough to take him on.
However after Fury's points decision against Anthony Taylor a fight he was expected to win by knockout, Jake Paul started to show more interest.
The Big Reveal
The fight is taking place on December 18th, the contract has been signed and there is no getting out of it now, so the Fury family have revealed their big plan.
As far as they're concerned, getting a chance to fight on such a big stage for huge amounts of money is too tempting to pass up as this tends to only come in boxing when you're fighting for titles.
This way Tommy gets to fight on the big stage raising his profile, and making a ton of cash whilst still learning his craft.
They claim that in fact Tommy held back from knocking out Taylor and his previous opponents because he didn't want to scare Paul off. The idea was to make him think that he was more poser than boxer, in other words, the ideal match up for Paul.
I must say, I believe them. Fury comes from a fighting family, he has a decent amateur boxing career and more to the point, he's a Gypsy, they have fighting in their blood. What's more, it seems at the latest press conferences Jake Paul is beginning to realise his error.
Of course he will carry on telling himself that he'll win and that Tommy's just a poser, but I have a feeling (much to many people's delight), that particular fairy tale will come to a very brutal end on the night of December 18th 2021.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? HAS TOMMY FURY TRICKED JAKE PAUL INTO FIGHTING HIM? OR PERHAPS YOU THINK ITS ALL BRAVADO AND TOMMY WILL HAVE TO CHANGE HIS NAME TO 'FUMBLES'?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
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