Tyson Fury has been forced to pull out of his fight date with Oleksandr Usyk, and promoter Frank Warren is currently unsure as to when it will be rescheduled.
Two weeks out from the contest for all four heavyweight titles, ‘The Gypsy King’ suffered a deep cut in sparring. Pictures and a video of the session, in which an elbow catches Fury on the head, quickly circulated on social media.
Speaking on TalkSPORT, Warren confirmed the elbow footage.
“The biggest blow is obviously to Tyson. He’s worked very hard and has been training very hard for this fight, and obviously sustained a terrible cut today. So it’s off and it’ll be postponed. I’m sure in due course we’ll be announcing a new date for the fight … He was sparring with a Croatian heavyweight who caught his eye with his elbow. I can’t tell you how gutted everybody is.”
Fury’s sparring partner at the time who inflicted the cut is believed to be 20-1 Agron Smakici.
The promoter was then asked for a potential timescale for rescheduling, but said it was impossible to say this soon.
“It’s all happened very soon and nothing’s been decided or worked out as far as what either boxer is going to do at the moment … He went to see the doctor in Riyadh and, I’ve got to be honest, I don’t know how many stitches he’s had. It’s a brand new injury … I ain’t even gonna go there with the [new] date. Until a doctor says Tyson’s fit enough to box, no one can make that assumption. It’s a terrible cut, and he’s got to recover for that, and he certainly won’t be going into a fight unless he’s 100%.”
Despite the delay, Warren said ‘of course’ he believes the fight will still happen.