Tommy Fury Hands Jake Paul His First Loss with Split-Decision Upset [Video]

Fury came out far more aggressive than he had in past fights, bringing the fight right to Paul from the opening bell. That led quickly to the first clinch of the fight.

Those clinches would be a major part of the story of the bout, with both men grabbing to break up the rhythm of their opponent or to try to create a reset to get the fight back to distance. Unfortunately, the clinching was excessive enough that the referee began to play a bigger and bigger role as the fight wore on.

After multiple warnings, the referee took a point from Paul in the fifth round. Then, he deducted a point from Fury in the sixth. Ultimately, the point deductions evened out, but it created a strange tone to the second half of the fight.

Fury’s jab was a big factor throughout the fight, constantly popping Paul in the face and keeping Paul from gaining the comfort to stay in range and unload the big overhand rights that had dropped many opponents before.

Paul continued to fire back and would go through his own strong stretches when he was able to slow down Fury’s pace. But heading into Round 8, it appeared Fury would be up on the scorecards and that Paul needed to make something dramatic happen to flip the script.

Paul did enter the bout with a rematch clause in place should Fury manage to pull off what was a small upset in terms of betting odds. In the ring after the fight, Paul gave Fury credit but made it clear that he intended to exercise that clause.

“All respect to Tommy, he won,” Paul said. “Don’t judge me by my wins, judge me by my losses. We deserve that rematch. I don’t know that I agree [with the scorecards]. I got a 10-8 round twice. … So, this is definitely a humbling experience. I’ll take it on the chin and we can run it back.”