Jake Paul has admitted he lost millions of dollars when Tommy Fury pulled out of their fight.
The YouTuber-turned-boxer went 5-0 by viciously knocking out Tyron Woodley in December, but he had been due to face Fury in a huge pay-per-view event. His Most Valuable Promotions, along with Showtime Boxing put up a large amount of money to promote the fight over four separate press conferences, and stacked the undercard with major bouts.
But just two weeks out from the grudge match, Fury broke his rib in training and was forced out of the fight with the injury. And while the Woodley fight was made to save the card, pay-per-view numbers suffered and the social media star's company lost a major night at the box office.
Asked if the fight cancellation cost him millions, Paul told Mirror Fighting, "Yeah, for sure". "I don't know really," he said of the exact amount. "I don't keep track of that, who knows?"
The event sold considerably lower than expectations, and while Paul would later dispute the rumoured 65,000 buy-rate it was notably lower than their first fight the previous summer.
Amanda Serrano's effective eliminator for his clash with Katie Taylor and an exhibition bout between NFL legend Frank Gore and basketball star Deron Williams filled the bill. And they all would have been out a major payday right before Christmas had the event been cancelled entirely.
Despite selling a solid amount of pay-per-views, in the region of 500,000, for the first Woodley fight in August, appetite was limited for a rematch. Paul had won a relatively comfortable split decision in their initial bout, and evidently fans weren't as keen on watching the bout again.
"Look, people weren't as excited for the Tyron fight as they were for the Tommy fight because they had already gotten that product," he explained. "It was hard to change the whole promotion around last minute to Tyron Woodley rematch.
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"But it is what it is, in boxing you have to roll with the punches and I got the chance to go back at someone who went eight rounds with me. And I got the chance to go back again and show that I had gotten better in camp and I got the knockout."
Fury is looking to make the fight happen again following his win over Daniel Bocianski on his brother Tyson's world heavyweight title undercard at Wembley last weekend. But he failed to finish the Pole, who had entered the ring with an impressive 10-1 record. And Paul was unimpressed with his performance, as well as his ability to draw fans to the stadium early for his undercard bout.
Speaking with Mirror Fighting earlier in the week, Paul blasted Fury as a "mediocre guy", against whom he wouldn't have much of a challenge. "Yes and no," he replied when asked if Fury's lacklustre performance had cost him the rescheduled fight.
"It obviously was a mediocre performance, but what do you expect from a mediocre guy? He's better at talking than he is at fighting. "There could be interest there.
"I want to see the Anderson Silva fight [on May 14 in Dubai] and how he does, how he looks. There are other talks with Mike Tyson and other names under the table so really we're just looking for the best opportunity. For me, Tommy is an easy fight, so maybe I'll just run it up, get a quick knockout and then move on from there, But maybe not."
