Tyson Fury and Jake Paul have agreed to put 1 million dollars in escrow ahead of the Jake Paul v Tommy Fury fight, due to take place at Madison Square Garden, New York on August 6th.
There has been some back and forth between the world heavyweight champion and the youtube star, turned professional boxer for the last couple of days, which resulted in the one million dollar bet being agreed upon.
It started when during an interview for IFL TV Tyson Fury stated he was backing his brother to beat Jake Paul and that he would have “100 grand with anybody” and put it on his brother Tommy.
This triggered a response from Jake Paul who mocked the size of the bet on offer and stated: “So Tyson Fury who made 40 million dollars last year is willing to bet 100k on his brother, oh my gosh we are shakey”.
This then resulted in the world heavyweight champion responding with an offer of 1 million dollars.
Jake Paul then responded by mocking the world heavyweight champion again for what he regarded as a “chump change bet” and his use of the perfect eyes filter on Instagram, however, stated he would be in contact with Tyson’s lawyer Robert to arrange the escrow and discussed what he may spend Tyson’s money on.
Tyson Fury then responded that Jake Paul should spend it on some new teeth and that “he will need that million dollars for dental work once Tommy had finished with him.
Whether the bet will actually go ahead or whether the back and forth is simply a publicity stunt to build hype ahead of August 6th is anyone’s guess.
This is a fight that divides opinion among the more hardcore boxing fans who perhaps dislike the celebrity boxing culture that has infiltrated the sport in the last few years, there are some who believe it makes a mockery of the hardest sport in the world, where fighters train their whole lives to master the craft of the sweet science and there are some that believe anything that brings new fans to the sport, is good for the sport.
One thing is for sure, despite such criticisms this will be a highly anticipated and highly watched fight that should record good PPV numbers.