Tyson Fury’s manager Spencer Brown has opened the lid on what happened during the mysterious spar between his fighter and Australian cruiserweight Jai Opetaia, after reports of ‘The Gypsy King’ being dropped by his partner emerged earlier this year.
Opetaia is undoubtedly the hottest name in the cruiserweight division at the moment, with brutal knockout wins over Jordan Thompson and Ellis Zorro reminding fans that he is the man to beat at 200lbs.
As a result of his success during 2023, Opetaia was brought in to spar Fury and help him prepare for former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, and the Aussie went over with a point to prove.
Yet, in a mysterious turn of events, Opetaia left Tyson Fury’s camp after just five rounds of sparring with the reigning WBC heavyweight champion, birthing reports that the Brit was dropped during those rounds and sent his partner packing during the aftermath.
In an interview with Queensberry, Spencer Brown claimed that there was no truth in those stories at all and that in fact, it was Opetaia who was impressed by Tyson Fury during camp.
“If you could have seen them spar, it was unbelievable. I’ll put a little record straight here, Jai Opetaia flew in and he’s a lovely kid, with a great team and he’s a great fighter but all of this rubbish about him putting Tyson away and all of that – it’s a load of rubbish.
“I think that he was a little bit shocked by how good Tyson really was.”
Other reports suggest that Opetaia simply left camp after he agreed to a rematch with Mairis Briedis, needing to secure more orthodox sparring and focus on preparing himself rather than Fury.