TYSON FURY shared his phenomenal body transformation immediately after his blockbuster showdown with Oleksandr Usyk was POSTPONED.
The £100million Fight of the Century was cancelled after the Gypsy King suffered a nasty cut in sparring.
Fury has been shedding the pounds ahead of, arguably, the most important bout of his life.
The WBC champion was due to battle WBO, WBA and IBF titlist Usyk in Saudi Arabia in the ‘Ring of Fire’ fight in two weeks time.
Queensberry Promotions revealed that the “freak cut” opened up above Fury’s right eye and required “urgent medical attention and significant stitching”.
talkSPORT’s Michael Benson reports that Fury sustained the gash during a sparring session with Croatian southpaw Agron Smakici in Riyadh.
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But despite worrying fans, Fury proved that he is in better shape than ever.
The Gypsy King boiled himself down to his optimum fighting condition – eventually looking absolutely ripped.
And now the British star has come out with yet more fighting talk to silence his critics.
Moments after calling off the bout, Fury showed off his sensational figure – in a picture that was taken before the injury occurred – to his 6.8m Instagram followers.
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Tyson Fury’s statement in full
TYSON Fury has apologised to boxing fans after suffering a horrific cut to his eye in training.
Fury said: “I am absolutely devastated after preparing for this fight for so long and being in such superb condition.
“I feel bad for everyone involved in this huge event and I will work diligently towards the rescheduled date once the eye has healed.
“I can only apologise to everyone affected including my own team, Team Usyk, the undercard fighters, partners, and fans as well as our hosts and my friends in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
He also posted on instagram, with the caption: “Can’t help getting injured in sparring but what I can say was Usyk was in trouble.
“I am in fantastic shape. I will resheduel (sic) soon as i can. 2024 a massive year for team GK #undisputed #wbcking”
He captioned it: “Can’t help getting injured in sparring, but what I can say is Usyk was in trouble. I will reschedule as soon as I can.”
This follows rumours that Fury had been getting turned over in his training camp.
One social media user wrote: “It’s boxing. It happens. Get the date back on.”
A second said: “We are growing tired of your excuses.”
A fight between Usyk and Filip Hrgovic is now reportedly being explored for February 17.
Fury and Usyk signed contracts at the end of September to set up an undisputed heavyweight championship fight, the first since 1997.
The showdown was initially planned for December 23, but Fury’s unconvincing split decision win over MMA star Francis Ngannou, left him needing more time to recover.
What does this mean for boxing?
The saddest thing is this didn’t really come as a surprise to the British boxing media
Rumours of Fury struggling in sparring with cruiserweight King Jai Opetaia and teenage sensation Moses Itauma were rife.
It seemed unlikely that the Gypsy King would risk upsetting Turki Alalshikh and the Saudi paymaster.
But now the disaster has officially hit.
As recently as Friday afternoon, SunSport was being invited to Usyk’s secret European camp for a media day on February 6.
And there was the release of the mega-money promo that merged about eight Hollywood films and cost silly million pounds.
If it’s only a cut, there is the outside chance Fury can be back in a few weeks.
But we saw against Otto Wallin that he’s vulnerable to a bleed that needed months to recover.
When Fury was dropped and useless against Francis Ngannou in October – delaying the original undisputed decider – the money men behind the scenes created an incredible replacement with AJ vs Wallin.
And they could do something absolutely crazy to compensate now.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
