WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has laid the blame for his positive Covid-19 test result squarely at the feet of his sparring partners.
The 32-year-old Brit was scheduled to face former champion Deontay Wilder 42-1-1 (41) for a third time at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada this Saturday night before the fight was postponed until October 9.
“I’m the last person to blame,” said Fury 30-0-1 (21) to the Daily Mail. “I don’t have a large entourage, unlike most world champions with all their ass-licking hangers-on.
“Since coming back into full-time camp I hadn’t been anywhere other than my new house here and the Top Rank gym. Nor had my team.
“The only people whose movements I couldn’t completely control were my sparring partners, who change. They came in and out of the bubble and everyone knows this town is full of Covid. I suspect we caught it from one of them.”
Fury plans to make some changes to his training camp for the rescheduled date against the power-punching 35-year-old American.
“There were only ten of us on the team this time,” Fury said. “But when we go back into camp for a month in England and another month here I will cut us to just four full time. Me, my head trainer SugarHill Steward, his assistant Andy Lee and my old pal Tim who organises my life.
“We will strictly control the access for sparring partners and increase testing. No masseur. No fitness coach. No dietician. Even my two brothers will have to wait to join me until fight week here in Vegas.
“I’ve suffered enough frustration on this rollercoaster. I don’t need more, any more than I would have risked anyone else’s health by coming early out of quarantine.”
Rumours abound that Fury never contracted Covid-19 and that poor ticket sales instead forced the postponement of the fight.
Not true, says Fury.
“Deontay and I set a new record for gate revenue for a heavyweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden in our second fight,” he said. “We were on the way to doing it again for the T-Mobile Arena, having already sold close to 15,000 of the 19,000 tickets with none of the most expensive ringside seats left.”
Fury fought Wilder to a disputed draw in Los Angeles in December 2019 before their rematch in Las Vegas in February last year. Unlike the first bout when Fury boxed off the backfoot, this time he was the aggressor. The change in strategy paid dividends. He knocked out Wilder in seven one-sided rounds.
“Mentally he’s a broken man,” Fury said. “I destroyed him last time in seven rounds and I will ruin him quicker next time. Inside five. He knows that if we fought ten times I would win ten times.”
