The origin of the beef between Jake Paul and Tommy Fury can be stemmed from a fake, mischievous post from a notable Twitter joker.
The wait is nearly over for Paul vs. Fury as their Saudi Arabia showdown edges closer following a heated build-up, which saw both fighters clash at the official weigh-ins.
They've traded barbs leading up to their eight-round bout, but the root of their rivalry comes from a fake tweet.
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Boxing Twitter user Del G - @ReallyNiceDerek - posted 'viewership' figures of selected events, including Canelo Alvarez vs. Avni Yıldırım as well as a Frank Warren show which featured the 23-year-old Brit.
Del G listed Fury's ratings as a peak of 1.9 million while claiming Canelo drew a peak audience of 105,000.
Fury's older brother, Tyson, fell for the figures and even aimed a tweet at 'The Problem Child'.
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He tweeted: "Massive congratulations to @TommyTNTFury for smashing records on @BTSport.
"Tommy slaughtered [the] competition over the weekend! Including America’s biggest boxing star Canelo Alvarez. Wow, just wow.
"@JakePaul where you at?"
That post provoked Paul, who responded with a video message as he mocked 'TNT'.
"I wake up and see Tyson Fury, the heavyweight champ, tweets me," he said.
"I get to the bottom of the tweet and I see that he like calls me out to fight someone and the tweet’s about his brother.
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"I’m like, ‘I didn’t even know he had a brother,’ and he’s calling me out to fight his brother.
"I like Tyson Fury, I don’t want beef with Tyson Fury, but if Tyson Fury took a s*** it would be this little brother. He’s literally just like this little kid.
"But my point is - Dear Tyson Fury’s little brother, if you wanna fight me don’t let your big bro do s*** for you, log on to Instagram or Twitter and call me out yourself."
He did exactly that and over a year later, they are set to settle their feud in the ring.
Topics: Tommy Fury, Jake Paul, Boxing
Nasir Jabbar