VIDEO: Jake Paul, Tommy Fury react to their backstage confrontation, discuss potential fight

CLEVELAND – Tommy Fury wants Jake Paul next, but Paul wants to see enticing numbers out of the Brit.

Following his win over Anthony Taylor on Sunday, Fury called out Paul, who outpointed former UFC heavyweight champion Tyron Woodley in the night’s headliner.

That led to a backstage altercation that was quickly broken up, and while Paul is not short of options for his next fight, the YouTube sensation didn’t rule Fury out as an option.

OH. MY!

“You need to stop running my friend!”

“Take the fight!”@tommytntfury and @jakepaul finally came face-to-face backstage and it was absolute chaos! pic.twitter.com/1398ZTZzMZ

— Boxing on BT Sport (@BTSportBoxing) August 30, 2021

“The guy really had nothing to say,” Paul said at the post-fight news conference. “He had a mediocre performance against my sparring partner. All credit to Anthony Taylor – he’s a tough guy – but Tommy Fury is supposed to be this tough, big, bad guy, legendary bloodline. I got in his face and let him talk. I don’t have anything to say to him.

“At the end of the day, I hired him to be here. I gave him an opportunity to shine. I don’t really have anything to say to him. I don’t really have any bad blood. I just said, ‘Yo, tell your girl get out of my DMs.’ At the end of the day, will we see that fight? I’d run that sh*t easy. That’s an easier fight than Tyron, in my opinion. But who knows.”

But Paul isn’t too sold on Fury’s star power, despite the marquee family name and his stint on the hit British reality TV show “Love Island.”

“People are like, ‘But he’s a real boxer.’ OK. Maybe. Let’s run it,” Paul said. “OK, real boxer … if he sold a lot of pay-per-views in the U.K. and we’re impressed with the numbers, sure. But I put him on this platform, so we’ll see what happens.”

Fury had a different take on the situation. He thinks despite Paul getting his hand raised against Woodley, the fight was a bit of a rude awakening for him.

“The man can say what he wants about my performance, but he went eight rounds with a guy who just walked forward like a plank of wood and didn’t throw a shot,” Fury said. “And every time Tyron did throw a shot, he nearly knocked him out. I can’t remember what round it was – he hit him with a straight right, No. 4, nearly knocked Jake Paul out. (Paul) didn’t know what day it was. But Jake Paul’s one of them, you’d be surprised if you see him in the ring again because I don’t think Jake Paul’s got a lot of balls.

“It’s obvious. He got asked about me in the post-fight interview – didn’t have nothing to say. He confronted me in the hallway there, had about 15-20 team of him jump all over us. He was there. We were ready to fight there and then. He’s big in front of cameras, but small by himself, and Jake Paul realized tonight how hard the sport of boxing is and he got clipped with a little shot. So imagine if he got hit and dropped – I don’t know if you’ll see Jake Paul back in the ring again.”

Fury insists he doesn’t need to fight Paul, but thinks it’s the perfect next step for both men, as well as an opportunity for the YouTube star to finally step in the ring against an actual pro boxer.

“I’m not begging and pleading for this fight,” Fury said. “I’m just a fighting man who will fight in the ring against anybody, and Jake Paul just happens to be calling my name an awful lot. But I’m here. I’ve done my part tonight. He’s done his part tonight. Why not make it next? It’s the fight that’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Nobody wants to see him fight another MMA kid. Why not come against a pro boxer? I’ve got a huge following in the U.K., and I don’t think it’s too bad in America, as well – so happy days there. It just seems right. But again, this is Jake Paul we’re talking about. Can he stand on? I don’t know.”