Riyadh – Asdaf News:
YouTuber Jake Paul lost his first fight of his nascent boxing career on Sunday night in Diriyah to professional boxer-turned-reality TV star Tommy Fury.
At the conclusion of their eight-round cruiserweight match at the Diriyah Arena outside the Saudi city of Riyadh, two judges awarded the fight 76-73 to Fury, while a third judge awarded Paul the victory 75-74.
“In my first main event, 23 years old, I had the world on my shoulders, and I came through,” Fury said after the fight. “This, to me, is a world title fight. I trained so hard for this. This was my destiny.”
Paul, a 26-year-old American with more than 20 million YouTube subscribers, is currently 6-1, while Fury, the younger half-brother from Britain of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, is still unbeaten with nine victories after pausing his boxing career in 2019 to appear on the reality series “Love Island.”
Millions of viewers were anticipated to watch the battle, which was the latest pay-per-view event featuring a YouTuber to cause a stir on social media as the organisers played up the animosity between the two competitors. The crowd was packed with celebrities, including former champion Mike Tyson, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, and comedian Kevin Hart, much as at a real world title fight.
Fury asserted his jab early to keep Paul at a distance but the YouTuber gained momentum in the fifth round, appearing to stun Fury.
Both had points deducted – Paul in the fifth for pushing his opponent’s head down while clinching and Fury in the sixth for too much clinching, a defensive tactic that’s often only allowed for short periods of time.
“All respect to Tommy, he won, don’t judge me by my wins, judge me by my losses. I’ll come back, I thought I deserve that rematch, it was a great fight, a close fight,” Paul said after the fight.–CNN
