Featured Image Credit: BBC/Molly-Mae Instagram
Topics: Tommy Fury, Molly Mae Hague
Dominic Smithers
Tommy Fury has sparked a huge debate following comments he made about Molly-Mae.
The boxer is currently preparing for his long-awaited fight with Jake Paul this weekend, and he said fatherhood has taken a backseat:
Tommy and Molly welcomed their daughter, Bambi, into the world earlier this year, their first child together.
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As most parents reading this will appreciate, parenthood is bloody hard: sleepless nights, constant attention, and often being the target of the little one's vomit.
Unsurprisingly, with him being well into his camp for what is undoubtedly the biggest fight of his career, Tommy hasn't been as available as he perhaps otherwise would have been.
Speaking about becoming a father ahead of the bout, the 23-year-old admitted that he's been too busy to have much of a hands on role, with Molly left to do it all herself.
He told the BBC: "Molly's took it upon herself to deal with everything herself.
"She hasn't bothered me once about anything.
"She's been absolutely amazing. I think people need to stand up and give her a lot of credit for that."
The former Love Island contestant went on: "It's such a serious fight that you can't break training camp.
"And these are the sort of sacrifices that I've made in the lead up to this.
"It is what it is, what can you do? I'll make up for it when I'm home."
His comments didn't go down well with a lot of people, who felt that this was a perfect example of the man's career coming before the woman.
Taking to Twitter, some claimed that Molly and others deserved better, and that the woman's career shouldn't just stop when they become a mother.
"'She hasn’t bothered me once about anything'. let this be a reminder for women," said one. "When you ask for nothing, a man will make it his mission to give you even less."
Another chipped in: "For her sake I hope she realises she deserves better."
"He better bloody win then," put a third.
Not everyone felt the same, though.
Many piled into the thread to explain that this is actually fairly common practice in elite sports, especially when it comes to boxing.
"Every professional athlete goes thru this guys, EVERY last one," said one user.
Someone else wrote: "Speechless about what? This is literally the norm at the elite level. Some fighters go months without seeing their family as they train in different countries. Sorry if that doesn’t play into your fantasy land happy families reality."
While another added: "It's normal for an athlete to do this. It is unfair as she's a first time mother doing it without Tommy right now but this happens all the time in sport. Footballers usually miss Christmas Day and birthdays every year because the sport has to be their priority."