Tommy Fury: "At the end of the day, Viddal, who is he outside of boxing? He's not anybody. He's got no global pulling power. He can't do any pay-per-views"; Riley: "He doesn't have any pull himself anyway. Go check the views on any of his fights, and then check mine. I have more pull"
Wednesday 21 June 2023 06:32, UK
Tommy Fury has claimed Viddal Riley is "not a big enough draw" in order to arrange a bout, while Riley has fired back, saying: "I have more pull than him."
Fury, younger brother of Tyson, is unbeaten in nine fights, most recently having beaten American social media personality turned pro boxer Jake Paul by split decision in February 2023, in a fight staged in Saudi Arabia.
While a fight vs Riley - the former boxing trainer and associate of YouTube personality KSI - has been mooted, Fury told Sky Sports he is not interested.
"No disrespect but Viddal's fighting a lot lower than me. Say what you want about opposition but I'm fighting on a world championship level. I'm doing millions of pay-per-view buys with all these big names," Fury said.
"I'm not going to be foolish and drop down and fight Viddal Riley in York Hall, am I?
"At the end of the day, all due respect to him but he's not a big enough draw.
"At the end of the day, Viddal, who is he outside of boxing? He's not really anybody. He's got no global pulling power. He can't do any pay-per-views."
Riley, who is also unbeaten in nine fights, most recently having defeated Anees Taj last Friday by TKO in London, fired back, also to Sky Sports:
"If he doesn't want to fight, just say he doesn't want to fight. He's in a sticky position: he's chosen that side of things, getting paid extremely well. Just say you're that guy now, say you're a crossover boxer.
"That's it, that's all Tommy has to do. All he has to say is: 'You know what, I'm a crossover guy now, I don't really have any interest in the traditional path, I'm not looking to be a traditional pro boxer,' and I'll leave him alone.
"But if you're going to try and blur the lines between the two, then blur the line over here. He doesn't have to blur the line here.
"He doesn't have any pull himself anyway. Jake has the pull. KSI has the pull.
"Go check the views on any of his fights when he's fighting in that realm, and then check mine, and I've stayed in this realm and, I would say I have more pull than he does.
"Anees Taj would knock out Tommy Fury. Let's not play games now. I think Anees Taj would knock out Tommy Fury. I'd like to see Tommy prove himself against an opponent like that, and see if he can deal with them. I doubt he can."
