Tommy Fury risks leaving boxing in the gutter if he falls to Jake Paul this weekend

Tommy Fury is fighting for the very dignity of boxing this Sunday night when he finally comes glove to glove with social media creation Jake Paul.

Defeat in the Saudi desert for Tommy Gun would not only beget personal humiliation but bring to a grim crescendo this week of excruciating embarrassment for the hardest game on earth.

Boxing has been walking on egg-shells since that convoluted and legally constricted ruling by the WBC to the effect that Conor Benn’s failed drugs tests may have been a consequence of devouring a volume of Mother Hen’s output so enormous as to have slain an ox with cholesterol.

Next, 24 hours before Fury’s duel with destiny, one of the best boxers of all time will make an exhibition of himself by toying with a cage-fighter substitute for an injured MMA grappler.

London’s 02 Arena threatens to be half empty for the fake fight in which Floyd Mayweather will further endow himself, while gifting a somebody by name of Aaron Chalmers the crumbs from a rich man’s table.

Mayweather, whose record 50-0 unbeaten retirement record is not at stake, says he is doing this to fulfil a long-held ambition to fight in Britain. The reality is in his nickname: Money.

Fury, the younger step-brother of world heavyweight champion Tyson, will also make a fistful of dollars. Those millions will not seem like such a pretty penny in the eyes of his sport should he lose to an opponent who has made his fortune as You Tuber. All the less so if he leaves open the door for Paul to be installed in world rankings after his only fight against a professional boxer.

Not that Tommy himself is a stranger to the flickering illusions of unreality television. He came to fame not via his eight victories in the prize-ring, but by appearing on Love Island.

Although he came second in that episode, he emerged a winner by dating Molly-Mae Hague and becoming the proud father of their new baby daughter.

But this time he had better be victorious in the contest itself.

Big Brother Tyson, who is expected to be in his corner in Riyadh, has advised him that he will need to change his surname from Fury if he loses to Paul. Their fighting father John has told Tommy to hang up his gloves if he fails to defeat this self-manufactured celebrity. 

Boxing will as good as turn its back on him should the worst happen. And Fury the Greater has stopped talking about ‘this easy fight’ and warned Tommy that ‘Jake is actually quite a decent boxer now.’

No pressure here, then, for a 23-year-old who is fighting for his self-esteem.

One excuse offered for the staging of this bizarre happening is that Jake Paul’s massive media following can galvanise fascination with boxing among the internet generation.

But what if the Noble Art is defaced to the extent that its hard-core, long-time rank-and-file aficionados are disenchanted?

Ironically this risk arises just as boxing is in the midst of a renaissance, especially here in Britain. With yet another poll finding boxing to be second only to football in popularity among British men.

Tyson Fury is expected to pour fuel soon upon that blaze of enthusiasm by fighting Ukraine war hero and Joshua-beater Olexsandr Usyk for the honour of becoming the first undisputed world heavyweight champion since another of our own, Lennox Lewis, more than a decade ago.

‘Cluck, cluck, cluck,’ mocked the public when the Benn verdict came down. Even though it is an interim judgement until UKAD are given sight of the evidence and the British Boxing Board of Control convene to consider whether or not to reinstate his license.

But if that was a bad joke –yoke, even – there is nothing funny about Floyd and Tommy this weekend. Not when Mister Mayweather prepares for his London debut by going on a 12-case shopping spree at Selfridges. Not if Master Fury’s journey from the Love Island beach ends in disaster in the sands of the Saudi Kingdom.

Charades is a gentle parlour game. Not something to be played in the ring.