Fury clears up Paul press conference no-show in Saudi Arabia

Tommy Fury has explained why he no showed the launch press conference for his upcoming clash with Jake Paul. Fury says that he ‘didn’t want to break camp’ so close to the contest and denies that it has any bearing on whether he will turn up on fight night.

Paul and Fury are set to box on February 26 after two failed attempts to make it happen in December 2021 and August 2022. Given their messy history, many fans are doubtful whether the fight will actually take place and those doubts were only heightened when Paul revealed that Fury would not be attending their kick-off press event earlier this week.

Paul explained that ‘private matters’ were the reason for Fury’s absence, but TNT has since come out and stated that he didn’t want to make the long trip to the Middle East while in the final stages of his preparations.

“I can clear that up in two seconds,” Fury told MMA Fighting. “Basically, Jake Paul signed up into the world of professional boxing and I am a professional athlete, a professional boxer. I always have been and [ask] any professional boxer and they’ll tell you this — no one breaks camp, mid to the end [of training camp] to fly all the way to Saudi Arabia, have a 10-minute press conference, fly all the way back to Manchester, complete my camp then fly all the way back to Saudi Arabia again the following week.

“So, I think the proof is in the pudding. You can see who the professional athlete is. I’m not interested in press conferences. I’m interested in completing my camp, which has been the best camp of my career and I’m ready to KO this man and get him out of the sport.”

The pair meet at a 185lb catchweight limit over eight rounds of professional boxing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. On the same card, Badou Jack takes on WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu for the coveted green strap while promising MVP prospect Ashton Sylve is also in action against grizzled Ghanaian veteran Maxwell Awuku.