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Tyson Fury suffers cut ahead of Oleksandr Usk fight
A few days away from Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk, Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated reported that the highly anticipated fight was not happening due to Fury suffering a cut. Team Fury confirmed the report, releasing a statement that revealed they were discussing a rescheduling.
“Whilst this is still breaking news, it is clearly a massive disappointment, after the worst that has been done by so many people to finally deliver this historic event to the world,” said Team Fury in a statement. “Once the doctors have appraised Tyson’s eye, we will have a better idea of the period of recovery need. Once known, we will work diligently with all the stakeholders and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to reschedule this fight as soon as possible and will of course keep everything updated with developments.”
With his eye appraised, we now have an official date for Fury vs. Usyk — again.
Fury vs. Usyk gets a new date
During a special edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Fury, alongside Saudi Arabian advisor and promoter of the fight, Turki Alalshikh, revealed that Fury vs. Usyk was rescheduled for May 18 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Since this was yet another postponement, Alalshikh also included a caveat: if either fighter withdraws, they forfeit $10 million.
“I have guarantees from both of the fighters, $10 million if someone escapes from the fight,” said Alalshikh.
Should either of them withdraw, they would get a replacement opponent, such as the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou. The ‘Predator’ has already responded with this short, yet effective idea:
Fury explains sparring incident, Team Usyk responds
Tyson Fury also shed some light on the day he suffered a cut in one of his final sparring sessions.
“It was yesterday morning, sparring,” said Fury. “I arranged to spar 12 rounds with four different guys. In Round 5, I got an elbow in the eye, got a split eye. Obviously I’ve been to the hospital and had 11 stitches. They have the medical reports, they have everything.
“Right across the eye, lovely,” continued Fury. “Nothing much anybody can do about a cut in sparring. S—t happens. I’ve never had one before. First time for everything.”
Despite his condition, Eglis Klimas, manager of Usyk, had no sympathy for Fury, who he said was ‘scared’ to fight.
“Maybe when you want to get cut, you’re going to get cut,” said Klimas. “Because he didn’t want to fight with Usyk. He’s scared.”
That earned a fiery response from Fury.
“Eglis, never called me a coward again,” said Fury. “I’ve had 35 professional fights. I’ve been boxing 18 years of my life. I’ve climbed off the canvas 10 times of the biggest punches in history to win. Never a coward. Never backed down from any man in my life.”
Recently, Tyson Fury defeated the aforementioned Ngannou in the ‘Battle of the Baddest’ in Riyadh this past October.
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