Tyson Fury’s manager Spencer Brown, has offered an excuse for the lacklustre display from ‘The Gypsy King’ when he faced Francis Ngannou back in October, despite Fury’s decision to stay coy about difficulties during preparation for the bout.
Fury was dropped in round three of the contest against the boxing debutant in a moment that shocked the world, but ultimately proved insufficient in Ngannou’s attempt to hand Fury a first career defeat, with the Cameroonian losing a tight split-decision.
Since then, the WBC champion has admitted that there were reasons for his uncharacteristic performance, but didn’t want to delve into them, as to not discredit the efforts of his opponent.
However, in an interview with Boxing King Media, Spencer Brown revealed that the 35-year-old was unable to sleep ahead of the fight.
“I’ll tell you the reason now, this is an exclusive – he never slept, for three days on the spin. That was the reason for the bad performance, you can take that how you want but I was there and I saw it all.
“He couldn’t sleep. We have cured that now because we have gone to a new camp and it’s wonderful, marvellous, you can sleep as much as you want.”
It’s not the first time sleep deprivation has been mentioned this year, after Ohara Davies put his defeat to Ismael Barroso down to the extra oxygen in Las Vegas’ hotels and casinos, which supposedly encourages customers to stay awake and continue to gamble.
Fury will be hopeful of a more routine preparation when he faces Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight title on May 18th, in a historic battle that takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as the Ngannou clash did.