Tyson Fury couldn’t be more proud of his little brother.
Earlier this month, Tommy Fury continued his run of success in influencer boxing, eking out a unanimous decision win over KSI in their highly anticipated boxing match. The bout was highly controversial; KSI claimed he was robbed by the judges, and even Fury’s own father admitted the bout was close and the decision could have gone either way.
Ultimately, even though Tommy Fury did win, he disappointed many fans with his performance. But one man who wasn’t was his older brother, the lineal heavyweight champion of the world, who celebrated all that Tommy has achieved.
“The fact that Tommy made $10 million for this fight, he’s 24 years old, probably made $25-26 million in his 10-fight career, it’s unbelievable,” Tyson Fury told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I’m very, very proud of where he’s come from.
“In 2018, Tommy didn’t have $10 for a bus pass. Today, Tommy’s got a hell of a lot of money, millions of dollars in his account, so I’m very proud of him. He can buy what he wants, got a $5 million mansion, G-Wagons, Lambos, Rolexes, the guy is flying.”
To Tyson Fury’s point, Tommy has carved out a nice little career in influencer boxing. At one point a lightly regarded professional boxer best known for being half brother to Tyson Fury – and for his stint on the reality television program Love Island, the younger Fury has now beaten Jake Paul and KSI — the godfathers of influencer boxing — in back-to-back fights that have drawn enormous public interest.
More than that, though, per Tyson Fury, they’ve also drawn new eyeballs to boxing.
“Regardless of the fights, these fights he’s had with Jake Paul and whoever else, it’s show business,” Fury said. “These fights, KSI, Jake Paul, Logan Paul, Dillon Danis, whoever these influencers are, this is show business. This is bringing millions of eyes to the boxing world, and the boxing world should be very appreciative of it. They could have picked any sport to train for. They could have picked MMA, and MMA would have got all the views and all the eyes. So I’m happy that all these guys coming to boxing, my chose sport, and that they’re bringing new fans, young kids, young girls, young boys, families.
“It was crazy the amount of people there the other night that were full families, kids. I never see young people at boxing events. So it’s a new crowd, and I’m very, very happy that these people are bringing them in, and I hope they do loads more fights. Tommy as well.”
Despite the interest, influencer boxing remains a divisive piece of the combat sports landscape. Many fans of the traditional boxing dismiss the entire thing as a gimmick and malign the fact that fighters of relatively low acumen are headlining events and making millions of dollars. But Fury argues that’s really the sign of success in this sport.
“Whoever the cruiserweight world champion is — WBC, WBA, whoever they are — they would be over the moon to fight Tommy for their title,” Fury said. “I know who the light heavyweight champion’s are, [Dmitry] Bivol and [Artur] Beterbiev, they’re not making the amount of money that Tommy’s making. They would be honored to fight Tommy for their belts.
“This game is called prize fighting. We fight for a big prize. Regardless of how you’re getting this prize, or who you’ve got to fight to get it, the ultimate aim is to get the prize, and Tommy has been doing that. So whether people want to slate his performance, or say it was fantastic, either way it doesn’t really matter, because he got paid, and he moves on to the next one.”