Jake Paul believes that Tommy Fury was convinced not to fight him by his brother, world heavyweight champion Tyson, and his dad, John.
The Love Island star is 8-0 as a professional boxer and was expected to travel to Madison Square Garden to face Paul on August 6. But he was forced to pull out of the fight, marking the second time he has been unable to take on his rival, due to a visa issue that stopped him from travelling to America.
Despite insistences from Fury and his promoter Frank Warren that the visa problem was the only reason why he wasn't able to make the fight, there are theories that there were other reasons. Fury already pulled out of fighting Paul once - back in December, when he broke his rib - which has frustrated Paul and his team, as they have had to make two late replacements.
Paul faced former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in a rematch last year and will now face 12-1 heavyweight boxer Hasim Rahman Jr - his biggest challenge to date. Discussing the recent saga, the American said he reckons that it was Fury's family that convinced him to once again pull out of the fight and lose out on a $2million payday.
"He's backed out of the fight once already with an 'injury' which we don't know whether or not it was actually an injury," Paul said of Fury on the Flagrant podcast. "He actually won't go to the Embassy right now.
"All he has to do is go to the Embassy right now, talk to them and they will give him his visa so that he can come over here and fight me. There's been no action on his side of things, and he seems like he doesn't want to actually go and do that, it seems like he's trying to get any way out of the fight.
"Who knows, to be honest, even if he went to the airport to be denied entry. He could be making the whole thing up, there's no pictures of him at the airport.
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"And you have to think, he's a superstar over there in the UK, he wears f***ing one-piece athletic suits like he's Floyd Mayweather, looking like a f***ing idiot, he's a super standout. They're going to be like 'that's Tommy Fury mate,' and take a picture, there's no pictures, so he could be making the whole entire thing up.
"Why not go to the Embassy, get your visa and make it happen? I think his brother and his dad had some sort of a serious talk with him potentially that was like 'yo, look at the way you fought in your last fight, you might not actually be able to beat Jake Paul'.
"On paper, he's been boxing since he was 12 years old, amateur career, 8-0, legendary bloodline, brother is the heavyweight champion of the world. Then he's fighting a guy who just started doing this. Who knows what's actually going on, I hate speculating, I wish s*** was just more straight up."
Paul's fight with Rahman Jr will take place instead, with many feeling that he has taken a more difficult challenge than the Brit presented. His new opponent is 12-1 as a professional and had a lot more amateur fights, including going the distance with Trevor Bryan, who would go on to hold heavyweight gold in the paid ranks.
