Tyson Fury’s brother Shane has lifted the lid on the recent Fury training camp after rumours that he was dropped by cruiserweight world champion Jai Opetaia during sparring.
The whispers began after it was confirmed that Opetaia had left Fury’s training camp after just five rounds of sparring with ‘The Gypsy King’, despite appearing to be ideal preparation for Fury’s clash with Oleksandr Usyk, who also previously reigned in the 200lb division.
Instead, it appears that the Aussie left camp to focus on his own fight against Mairis Briedis, in a bid for the vacant IBF world title on the Fury-Usyk undercard. In an interview with Boxing King Media, Shane Fury cleared up any remaining rumours.
“I can assure you that he [Jai] never dropped anyone, whether Tyson beat him up or didn’t beat him up or vice versa. If he beat Tyson up, I would tell you that he is a very good man and keep it straight, but I wouldn’t be saying anything if Tyson did the same thing with him because it is just sparring stories.
“Listen, it’s a load of rubbish, that obviously never happened but people will believe what they want to believe. Any little bit of negativity, they can get views off of it and I suppose that it is the business but with these people, if they are doing 100 videos a month, 85 of them is of Tyson. Negative-ness.”
“Tyson has never, ever been dropped in sparring, ever. He looks like he has got a f***ing glass chin in the ring but never in sparring has he ever been dropped. I’m sure he will have seen blue flashes and whatever, but I’ve never seen him hurt or wobbled or dropped.”
Fury has since suffered a cut that has postponed the Usyk clash until May 18th, with Opetaia and the rest of the undercard fighters also being made to wait the additional three months.