Gareth A. Davies says it’s not true that cruiserweight Jai Opetaia knocked WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury this week in sparring and was ushered home after five rounds due to the fear of him ruining the Gypsy King before his August 17th fight with IBF/WBA/WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk,
Gareth says that it’s not only not true that Fury was knocked down, but if anyone dropped during the sparring, it was Opetaia (24-0, 19 KOs). That’s something that fans would have a hard time believing because Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) isn’t a big puncher unless he’s landing rabbit punches.
Fury Camp Denies Opetaia Knockdown
“Jai Opetaia has left because he needs to train for Mairis Briedis, and Tyson Fury is not the perfect sparring partner for him,” said Gareth A. Davies to Boxing Social on why former IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia left Tyson Fury’s camp after just five rounds of sparring with him.
“He only has a month to get sorted. He needs to train for Mairis Briedis, who is a serious fighter. I do understand they sparred five great rounds together,” Gareth continued about Fury and Opetaia sparring five rounds before Jai was sent home after having flown 14 hours from Australia to help train Tyson.
Davis: “Fury Knocked Opetaia Down, More Likely”
“If you’re alluding to him having knocked Fury down, but he didn’t. He’s left because he needs to train for Mairis Briedis. Tyson Fury is not the right sparring partner for Mairis Briedis,” said Gareth.
“We know there’s at least eight sparring partners. I saw Fury at the Joy awards in Australia, and you can tell when his face and his jaw is long and lean, he’s in shape. You can see it.
“You can definitely see it in his body that he’s been training and sparring hard. That’s what I’m saying. I said that just now about knocking Fury down. It didn’t happen,” said Gareth when asked to categorically rule out that Fury had been knocked down by Opetaia.
“It’s much more likely that Fury knocked Opetaia down,” said Gareth.
Davies sounds like he’s in damage control mode by turning things around, saying that it was Opetaia that may have been knocked down. That sounds like wishful thinking. What’s the big deal of Fury getting dropped? He was knocked down in his last fight against Francis Ngannou and four times by Deontay Wilder.
