Jake Paul and Tommy Fury's year-long war of words looks set to finally draw to a close this Christmas as the Brit makes his way to Miami for a pay-per-view showdown.
Love Island star Fury's brother Tyson, the heavyweight champion of the world, initiated talks back in February when he reposted a troll report of BT Sport viewership numbers, leading to Paul calling out the unbeaten boxer.
The pair have gone back-and-forth since, while each taking fights to get their records to 4-0 and 7-0 respectively, finally coming face-to-face when Fury fought on Paul's undercard over the summer.
Fury comfortably beat the social media sensation's parring partner Anthony Taylor by unanimous decision in Cleveland, while Paul defeated former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley by split-decision in the main event.
And in the hallway after the bout, as Fury was being interviewed by BT Sport, Paul was walking through and the pair had a run-in which appeared to set up their fight for this year.
Paul and Fury are both relative novices at the professional level, but the Brit has opened as a favourite given his boxing pedigree that includes relatives like Tyson, Hughie Fury and his dad John.
As the fight between two social media stars forging a way for themselves in boxing edges closer, we've examined both men's careers to date...
Jake Paul
Ohio native Paul, 6'1" and 190lbs, made his name on social media platform Vine, before moving to YouTube to make daily vlogs, where his channel has amassed over 20million subscribers.
His mainstream fame exploded when he was cast on the Disney Channel show Bizaardvark in 2016, where he starred as 'Dirk Mann' for two seasons and became a wildly popular character with younger fans.
He wrestled and played American football to a relatively high level in high school, and was considering training to become a Navy Seal before rising to fame.
Paul wouldn't lace up a set of boxing gloves until 2018, when after YouTube star KSI defeated Joe Weller in a white collar boxing match, he was called out for a fight.
He ultimately ended up fighting KSI's brother Deji in the co-main event of a massive pay-per-view event in August of 2018, while his brother Logan took on KSI.
Who wins this fight, Jake Paul or Tommy Fury? Let us know in the comments section!
He defeated the Brit within the distance, and moved on to the professional ranks in 2020, where he took on fellow YouTuber AnEsonGib in Miami on the undercard of Demetrius Andrade's world title defence against Luke Keeler.
Despite the fact that Paul would go on to stop 'Gib', real name Ali Al-Fakhri, within a round, there were serious pre-fight predictions from credible sources, like unbeaten YouTube boxing star KSI, that Paul would lose.
He then moved on to face basketball star Nate Robinson, a man whose solid NBA career was remarkable for his ability to make it to the big leagues in a sport of giants despite being just 5'9".
Robinson started training for the fight, which was scheduled initially for July, just weeks prior, and despite getting extra opportunities to train for three months, he was clearly outmatched by Paul.
The YouTuber viciously knocked out Robinson in a fashion so brutal that the stoppage went viral across the internet, and immediately made Paul a main-event star.
He then insisted on fighting a real fighter, with Michael Bisping and Dillon Danis both made offers, but settled on former Olympic wrestler and MMA champion Ben Askren.
Retired fighter Askren was known as one of the best in the world during his prime, but he was also infamous for his poor striking, and he was put down inside a round of his boxing debut against Paul.
And a verbal altercation with one of his cornermen, ex-UFC champion Tyron Woodley, set up Paul's next bout, which took place in Cleveland, Ohio in August.
Paul was rocked for the first time in his career by Woodley, and one judge even gave the decision to the ex-UFC star, but ultimately the hometown fighter got the win by split decision.
Fury fought on the undercard, and a backstage altercation between the pair set the scene for their meeting, which looks finally set to take place.
Tommy Fury
Tommy Fury's boxing journey began considerably earlier than Jake Paul's despite being two years younger than the YouTuber.
The Manchester native, 6'0" and 179lbs, was born into a fighting family, with his dad John a known fighter with a solid professional background, and his brother Tyson going on to become world heavyweight champion multiple times.
He boxed all through his teens, taking a small few amateur fights, before turning professional in 2018 on the undercard of Josh Warrington vs Carl Frampton.
He fought journeymen Jevgenijs Andrejevs and Callum Ide in his first two bouts, before accepting a spot on ITV reality show Love Island in the summer of 2019.
Fury took a number of months off from boxing to compete on the show, where he met girlfriend Molly-Mae Hague and finished second to Greg O'Shea and Amber Gill.
And millions of followers later, he was back in the fight game, facing Przemyslaw Binienda in his return fight and stopping the Polish fighter in a Christmas-time fight night.
Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic would keep Fury out of the ring for most of the following year, but he did come back against Genadij Krajevskij in November.
He stopped Krajevskij and then Scott Williams before igniting his feud with Paul in the early part of this year.
Paul reportedly tried to get him on the undercard of his bout with Askren, but when he signed with Showtime for the Woodley fight, he was able to land a spot against Anthony Taylor for Fury.
He beat Jordan Grant in June, before moving on to face Taylor in Ohio, who he beat comfortably, if unconvincingly given his boxing pedigree relative to the MMA fighter, who had only boxed once.
Paul will undoubtedly be his toughest test this time around, and we expect this to be a fascinating fight when they finally meet in the ring this Christmas.
