RUMOURS that a monster cruiserweight was sent home from Tyson Fury’s training camp after just five rounds of sparring have been quickly denied.
The 35-year-old Gypsy King will attempt to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion in over 25 years next month when he takes on Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh.
The Brit has provided his supporters with their first glimpse at his secret Saudi training camp for the biggest fight of his career.
Usually outspoken Fury had essentially gone radio silent ahead of the showdown and has not been regularly taking to social media like usual.
But he did provide some insight into what he’s been doing as he shared a clip of himself and his team getting a training session in at the gym.
Now some more news from his camp has emerged after it was revealed that unbeaten 24-0 Aussie cruiserweight star Jai Opetaia had been drafted in for sparring.
But after just five rounds of working with the 6ft 9in Fury, he had left and returned Down Under – sparking some wild claims from boxing fans.
Fox Sports Australia’s Ben Damon started the rumours when he revealed that the two had sparred.
He wrote on X: “Jai Opetaia did five rounds of sparring with Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia but with a lack of orthodox sparring in Fury’s camp Opetaia has now returned to Australia to continue his own preparations for the planned Mairis Briedis rematch at #FuryUsyk.”
That instantly led to widespread speculation on social media as fans believed they knew the reason why the 28-year-old had left the Gypsy King’s camp.
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“Haha he defo sparked out Fury,” claimed one.
Another said: “Jai rolled in with the thunder from down under and got sent home.”
“Dropped in Sparring? Sparred only 5 rounds? Yeah jai cracked him,” claimed a third.
While another wrote: “Hahahaha what’s he done to Fury?”
However, one fan asked Damon directly, saying: “Did you hear anything about Jai dropping Fury in their sparring?”
To which Damon replied: “Yep I heard it didn’t happen.”
Opetaia will face Briedis in his next fight on the undercard of Fury versus Usyk next month.
The 6ft 2in star holds the Ring magazine and lineal cruiserweight titles but vacated his IBF one after a disagreement with them last month.
After seeing the rumours spread like wildfire online, his co-promoters quickly responded to the claims that he had dropped Fury.
A statement from Tasman Fighters said: “Jai Opetaia has recently returned from Saudi Arabia where he sparred and trained with Tyson Fury.
“They were fantastic, competitive rounds and an incredible experience for Jai.”
It continued: “However any talk of either boxer being dropped is not true.
“Jai is now back in Australia finalising his preparation to defend his world title and cannot wait to do so in Saudi Arabia.”
SunSport understands that nobody in Fury’s camp matches either the orthodox stance or the 6ft 1in size of Briedis, hence Opetaia heading home to spar with someone of a similar ilk.
