Tyson Fury revealed a cut over his right eye on Friday that forced the postponement of his scheduled undisputed world heavyweight championship fight against Oleksandr Usyk.
The two men were set to put their respective titles on the line on February 17 in Riyadh, but instead will have to wait longer as Fury recovers from the laceration suffered in sparring.
In Queensbury Promotions' confirmation of the postponement on social media, a photo of Fury was included and showed the extent of the damage.
Speaking to Betway, cutman Jorge Capetillo says that caution is always the right course of action in these situations and provided an estimate for when Fury might be ready to step into the ring again.
"I would say it will take 90 days at least to recover from a cut in sparring," Capetillo said. "Hopefully the fight can happen in the summer because it’s such unfortunate news. The cut needs to heal really good and then Tyson can get back in action, back in training and get back in camp so it will be at least a few months for sure.
"Accidents can happen in sparring, and this is what has happened with Tyson so he will need time to heal. It will now reopen during the fight if they continued into the fight so now, he needs time out to make sure it doesn’t open up with a first punch from Oleksandr Usyk."
Capetillo explained that fighters tend to ramp up their training as fights draw closer, which raises the possibilty of such occurrences. While it is unfortunate, he says Fury's camp made the right call in the end.
"Obviously during camp, sparring sessions when getting ready for a fight of this calibre means you bring the best sparring partners you can and work hard in sparring but sometimes it’s very tough and things like this can happen," Capetillo said. "We always try to prevent that and make sure the fighter has a healthy camp, but this is part of the game. This is a fight that requires the best of the best with the best sparring partners.
"When there’s a cut happened by a punch, the opponent can get a TKO if the fight gets stopped so all of that stuff is important to have precaution. I know how hard Tyson was working for this fight. His work ethic, his discipline, he was working really hard like always and was so hungry for this fight. But these things happen, and cuts happen."
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