Tyson Fury has jumped to his brother Tommy's defence after he faced criticism for his unanimous decision win over YouTuber KSI.
Love Island star and unbeaten professional boxer Tommy won on all three judges' scorecards in the AO Arena headliner, which is believed to have sold a record-breaking 1.3million pay-per-view units. It was a clearer win than his victory over Jake Paul months earlier, but proved controversial as he failed to get going throughout the fight, with KSI officially appealing the judges' decision.
But Tyson has jumped to his brother's defence after watching him land another massive money payday in front of a sold-out crowd in his hometown of Manchester. Both siblings are major stars in the sport, albeit at different levels; Tyson is the undefeated world heavyweight champion.
“The fact that Tommy made $10million for this fight and he’s 24 years old, has probably made $25/$26million in his 10-fight career, it’s unbelievable," Fury said 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 has 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, he’s got a $5million mansion. G-Wagons, Lambos, Rolexes, the guy is flying. Regardless of all of these fights he’s had with Jake Paul and whoever else. It’s show business, these fights with KSI, Jake and Logan Paul, Dillon Danis. Whoever these influencers are, this is show business.
Love Island's Haris spills on unaired row between Zara and Tanyel"It’s 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 that would have got all of the views. I’m happy that all of these guys come into boxing and they’re bringing new fans. It’s crazy the amount of people there the other night that were young families with their kids.
"I never see anything like that, so it's a new crowd and I'm very, very happy that these people are bringing them in. I hope they do a load more fights and Tommy as well."
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And Tyson believes that world champions will be lining up to fight his brother, given his massive drawing power in these two headlining events. If the reported numbers of 1.3million and 850,000 for his fights with KSI and Paul are true, then it would technically place the youngster atop the list of pay-per-view headliners in the sport by year's end.
"Whoever the cruiserweight world champion is, WBC, WBA whoever they are, they would be over the moon to fight Tommy for their title," Fury added. "I know who the light-heavyweight champions are, [Dmitry] Bivol and [Artur] Beterbiev, they're not making the kind of money that Tommy is making.
"They would be honoured to fight Tommy for their belts. So this game is called prize fighting, we fight for a big prize so 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. These fights for Tommy, Jake and KSI, these are like their world title fights if that's how much it means to them, everything's on the line, emotions are flying and these boys are training really hard for these fights."