In the wake of Oleksandr Usyk’s undisputed heavyweight championship win over Tyson Fury the hot rumour doing the rounds was that the WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine king suffered a broken jaw during the bout.
Not so, says Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk, who insists the 37-year-old Ukrainian southpaw suffered nothing more than a minor injury in his split decision victory over Britain’s Fury, 35, at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
“Nothing major (is wrong with him),” Krassyuk told Boxing King Media. “So he went to the hospital after the press conference.
“And they made the exams and it’s something like a one-week recovery. No broken jaw and thank God he is safe and sound.
“When we went to the locker room, the local doctor came up to inspect.
“And Usyk felt some discomfort in his upper jaw and the doctor said anything could happen and this is a very sensitive area so you need to be inspected as fast as possible.
“The doctor insisted it has to happen very fast and I came up to Usyk and said, ‘listen, we need to skip press conference because the doctor is pushing us hard and we need to go as soon as possible, the ambulance is prepared for the drive’.
“But Usyk said, ‘Guys, listen we need to comply with our obligations, we have the press conference, let’s go to the hospital after the press conference’.”
“Then, again after more discussions with the doctor, (it was decided) we can’t go to the press conference because the doctor is pushing.
“So I was the one who went to the press conference and I apologised for Usyk not showing up.
“And I was walking back because I wanted to get the car to the hospital to join him.
“And suddenly I see Usyk walking and my impression was they were walking to car to go to the hospital and then our security guy goes ‘No, no it’s a press conference’.
“[So I thought] okay welcome back. Probably the narrative about his broken jaw was brought by Tyson (Fury) and Frank (Warren) at the press conference.”
Fury’s co-promoter Frank Warren has since conceded it was a dental issue rather than a broken jaw that Usyk suffered, while still insisting the champion took more damage in the fight despite his own boxer being the only one with a knockdown recorded against them.
“We don’t know what the fight is going to take out of both of the guys because, I tell you what, Usyk looked like he had been a fight,” the Queensberry Promotions chief told talkSPORT Breakfast with Jeff Stelling and Ally McCoist on Monday morning.
“He had stitches in his eye, he was banged up, they thought his jaw was broken but in fact it was an impacted [tooth] implant that caused him a lot of pain.”
Usyk 22-0 (14) and Fury 34-1-1 (24) are expected to face each other in an immediate rematch in October.