Tommy Fury would have been markedly richer if bookies had taken his bet on Daniel Dubois and Jake Paul not fighting. The 25-year-old said he was willing to bet “everything” in his bank account that the IBF heavyweight champion wouldn’t see a fight with YouTube sensation Paul come to fruition, while labelling the Briton “embarrassing” back in November.
In the wake of Paul’s unanimous decision win over Mike Tyson, Dubois – who stunned the world months earlier by knocking out Anthony Joshua for heavyweight glory – looked eager to be eyeing a mega-money showdown with the Ohio native, with a direct message between the two being ‘leaked’.
‘Problem Child’ Paul took to social media to share a photo of the alleged message from Dubois, which read: “Hi Jake, Good business on the weekend but how would you feel fighting the legitimate heavyweight champion of the world. This is Daniel Dubois calling you out let’s get it on.”
And it didn’t take long for Fury – who handed Paul the first professional loss of his career back in February 2023 via split decision – long to speak about the interaction. The half-brother of Tyson Fury said: “You’ve got to be realistic. Paul isn’t fighting Dubois or anyone like that.
“You’ve got legitimate world champions of the sport, calling him [Paul] out. It made sense for me because I was at the start of my career and I would have been fighting journeymen anyway. If I was an undisputed unified champion, I wouldn’t give a f*** about Jake Paul.
“I think it’s a bit embarrassing on [Dubois’] part. I don’t know what Dubois is doing. The fact he even thinks I’m gonna put it out there because he might bite.” He added: “I guarantee now, I’ll put everything that I have in my account on it, you’ll never see Jake Paul and Daniel Dubois in the ring together unless they write up a contract and offer Dubois £200milllion to go in the ring and not even look at him.”
Paul isn’t the only pugilist that Dubois has reportedly called out since his win over Joshua in September either. The 27-year-old famously stormed the ring after Oleksandr Usyk’s second win over Tyson Fury in December to offer the gauntlet of to the undefeated Ukrainian.
Speaking to Usyk in the ring, he said: “Usyk, I want my revenge. I want my revenge Usyk. Well done on tonight, well done on tonight. God bless. I want my revenge for the robbery last time. Let’s get it, let’s go.” The ‘robbery Dubois was referring to was a 2023 clash between the two heavyweights in Wroclaw, Poland, in which Dubois suffered a ninth-round knockout loss – missing out on the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO belts.
However, should Dubois hope to have his day in the sun with Usyk once more, he will have to get past Joseph Parker on Saturday evening first. The two men are set to clash at the Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia with the IBF strap on the line, as a co-main event to Artur Beterbiev’s light-heavyweight rematch with Dmitry Bivol.
Speaking on his opponent ahead of the bout, Dubois said: “I don’t know if I’m under his skin. I know what I’m here for, what I have been training in camp for now. I just feel like I’ve got to be better, stronger, faster, everything, what you’re talking about, the face-off, that was a bit of fun. I’ll make him quit.”
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