Former cruiserweight world champion Jai Opetaia has left Tyson Fury’s training camp after sparring just five rounds with the Brit.
Opetaia will fight Mairis Briedis on the undercard of Fury’s undisputed heavyweight world title fight with Oleksandr Usyk next month. He has also been part of Fury’s team in Saudi Arabia but the 28-year-old has returned to Australia due to a lack of orthodox sparring.
Fury has prioritised southpaw sparring ahead of his clash with ‘lefty’ Usyk and has been based in the Middle East since shortly after Christmas. He and Usyk will meet in the ring on February 17 as they attempt to crown the division’s first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999.
A statement from Opetaia’s promoter read: “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. 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.”
Fury enters a fight billed as ‘Ring of Fire ’ on the back of last year’s fraught split decision victory over former UFC heavyweight king Francis Ngannou, who was making his boxing debut. But he is confident he can deliver an improved performance. “I’m going to bust him up. Sausage. Ugly little man. Rabbit. Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run,” Fury said.
“You know what’s coming? You’re getting smashed to pieces, sausage. You’re fighting the best British heavyweight there’s ever been. You’ve beaten the rest of them, but you haven’t beaten Tyson Fury, sausage.
“You can never beat me. If you beat me in your dreams you better wake up and apologise. I stole that from Muhammad Ali, I apologise. When you sleep at night ugly man you’re going to think of me for the next eight weeks. I’m going to punch your face in. You ugly little man.”
With his verbal attack on the Ukrainian over, Fury talked up the quality of a contest between two outstanding boxers who posses skill and warrior spirit in equal measure, even if he thinks Usyk will struggle because of his size.
“We’re both undefeated. He’s a champion, I’m a champion. It’s going to be a fight for the ages,” Fury said. “It’s been 24 years since we’ve had an undisputed champion. The Klitschkos were champions for around 10 years, so there’s been 14 years when the other heavyweights couldn’t do it.
“We’ve both been chosen and there can only be one winner. I’m going to become the undisputed champion. More than that, I’m destined to cement my legacy as the number one fighter of this era.
“To do that I’ve got to beat this little man, which is easier said than done because he’s a tricky boxer, slick and all of that. But I’ve seen many like him before and when they fight the big men, they struggle. And he will struggle on February 17. I will break him.
“He’s a middleweight, but it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog and he’s obviously got a lot of fight in him. But when you meet a big man who is a lot bigger but also has the fight inside him, let’s put it in a nutshell – you’re f****d.”
