Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Tommy Fury confirms Tyson Fury didn’t cause injury while training him for Jake Paul fight

The ex-Love Island contestant withdrew from his bout with YouTuber Paul due to injury and illness

Alex Pattle
Combat Sports Correspondent
Wednesday 22 December 2021 16:18 GMT
Comments
Tyson Fury trains brother Tommy for Jake Paul fight

Tommy Fury has said his half-brother Tyson did not cause the injury that led the former Love Island contestant to withdraw from his fight with Jake Paul.

Fury, 22, was set to face the YouTuber on 18 December but pulled out of the bout a week-and-a-half before it took place, citing a broken rib and chest infection.

Former UFC champion Tyron Woodley stepped in to fight Paul, 24, for the second time in four months. Paul beat the 39-year-old again, following his August points victory over his fellow American with a vicious knockout last weekend.

Some speculated that Fury’s rib injury was caused by the Briton’s brother Tyson – the WBC heavyweight boxing champion – throwing a medicine ball at the 22-year-old’s torso.

The moment was caught on video, but Fury dismissed its role in his withdrawal, telling Unibet Lowdown: “I can confirm that Tyson with the medical ball was not what broke my rib.

“I have been having that done to me in the gym my entire life, in every single training session. I can take that and 10-times more than that, that video is not how it happened.

“My body was getting weaker and weaker by the day, but I decided to have a little spar and took a little clip to my rib, and something didn’t feel right.

“I went and had an MRI, in the tunnel for one hour and 45 minutes, and the doctor said: ‘I have been doing this for 20 years and that is a fractured rib.’

“I said it would be fine, but my dad, Tyson and the doctor told me I could not fight. And another doctor told me that, if I had boxed, I could have ended up with a perforated lung. You cannot fight with a broken rib. The chest was one thing, but a broken rib was the icing on the cake.”

Fury also admitted to being upset while watching Paul’s most recent win against Woodley, saying: “If you have seen the fight, you will have seen how easy it would have been for me.

“It’s a pretty bad place you’re in when the commentators say: ‘It’s getting pretty hard to watch now.

“And joking between the commentators: ‘Who won that round?’ ‘Well nobody.’ And that went on for well more than half the fight.

“I was watching it and it was very upsetting for me to sit there and watch it. I’m not going to beat around the bush, because it was.

"Because I know if I had been in there, he wouldn’t have being going no six or seven rounds, whatever it was. It wouldn’t have been going there, because for the first four or five rounds, the guy didn’t even throw a punch.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in