The Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury fight has been cancelled, allegedly due to a cut suffered during sparring.
If the rumour is indeed true, why was Fury sparring so close to the fight, potentially without head-gear or other precautions?
I have no sources at this time on the specific details. but a photo has been shared on the following article by SBNation’s Bad Left Hook (authored by Scott Chris):
The cut does indeed look very bad, but how authentic is it, and how recent is it?
Rumour has it that Filip Hrgovic may step in as a last minute replacement, the following is a tweet by Chris Mannix:
Filip Hrgovic, the IBF mandatory for Usyk’s heavyweight title, is interested in stepping in and facing Usyk on February 17th, a source told @SInow.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) February 2, 2024
Hrgovic is the current mandatory for the IBF world-title, followed by Anthony Joshua as second in the rankings.
In theory, Usyk could vacate the title, and Joshua and Hrgovic could fight for a vacant title; personally, I think Usyk would prefer to fight Hrgovic himself.
Whilst this isn’t the result many fans were looking for (and I was looking forward to the Usyk v Fury match), Hrgovic is a solid late replacement.
He’s a high-level contender who has worked his way through the rankings, defeating the likes of Zhilei Zhang (though some believe Zhang deserved the victory) who defeated Joe Joyce twice.
Other rumours
There have also been rumours that an elbow was used in sparring (the individual has not stated whether it was accidental or deliberate) and that it was capture on video. I cannot verify this claim, but I can share the following embed from Instagram:
View this post on Instagram
He looks like he has slimmed down substantially, which may suggest that his training camp was going well.
I do think it is overzealous to state that Usyk was going to be in trouble, Usyk himself would have made a lot of preparations for this fight.
I will continue to research this story as it develops, and provide updates either to this post, or simply upload new ones.
Update 03/02/2024
As of the date above, EverythingBoxing has tweeted a leaked video showing what appears to be an elbow making contact on Tyson Fury, close to the eye.
It is powerful enough to lift his head up momentarily, Fury is also wearing a head-guard, so that refutes the rumours that he wasn’t.
I have included the embed of the tweet below:
‼️ Tyson Fury appears to have sustained the cut via an elbow per leaked footage.pic.twitter.com/WPUjeYVSTL
— EverythingBoxing (@EverythingBoxi2) February 2, 2024
We cannot see the cut in the video, but we can see that Fury dabs his eye (or at least, the region around it) shortly after the contact was made.