Boxing Broadcaster Details Why Jai Opetaia Left Tyson Fury’s Training Camp: “Fury Is Not the Right Sparring Partner”

The “Who dropped whom?” fiasco continues. Veteran boxing broadcaster Gareth A Davies has now jumped into the conversation. He has now given his take on the rumors of Jai Opetaia dropping Tyson Fury in a sparring session.

To prepare for his undisputed title fight against Oleksandr Usyk, WBC champion Tyson Fury has set up camp in Riyadh, the venue of the fight. One of the sparring partners roped in to help him was cruiserweight king Jai Opetaia, who was on the undercard for a fight against Mairis Briedis. The session ended prematurely after a mere 5 rounds, with the Australian fighter walking out. Speculations emerged that the latter had floored Fury during the sparring session. Later, clarifications were issued by Opetaia’s team, but the boxing world seemed to want to stick to the rumors. Gareth A. Davies, a man known to keep an ear on such things, presented a compelling conjecture into the rumors.

Why did Jai Opetaia leave?

To Boxing Social, the Telegraph Sports reporter noted, “Well, he’s left because, he needs to train for Mairis Briedis. Tyson Fury is not the right sparring partner for Mairis Briedis.” Earlier, Australian reporter, Ben Damon too had highlighted a similar reason.

To prep for the Briedis clash, Opetaia looked for a sparring partner with an orthodox position against his southpaw stance. Fury, a left-hand, left-foot forward fighter, seemed ideal. However, at the end of their session, it was reported that the match was not ideal for Opetaia, resulting in his leaving from there.

Furthermore, Davies also mentioned the presence of other heavyweights at the camp who are much better suited to help Fury as the reason for Opetaia leaving the camp. “We know that Moses Itauma is over there. There’s a few others, but yeah, Moses Itauma, Kevin Lerena. I think at least there’s 8 sparring partners.”  While Moses Itauma is an orthodox fighter with a record of 7-0, Kevin Lerena, with a record of 30-2, fights in a southpaw stance.

Gareth A. Davies did not, however, stop just there. He went ahead to even predict who could have dropped whom in the sparring session.

“Who dropped whom?”

Davies said, “Knocking Fury down, didn’t happen. Didn’t happen. It’s much more likely that Fury knocked Opetaia down.” However, Opetaia’s team contends that no one was dropped during the session. In a clarification issued by Opetaia’s Australian promotions company, Tasman Fighters, they said, “Jai Opetaia has recently returned from Saudi Arabia where he sparred and trained with Tyson Fury. They were fantastic, competitive rounds and incredible experience for Jai. However any talk of either boxer being dropped is not true. Jai is now back in Australia finalizing his preparation to defend his world title and cannot wait to do so in Saudi Arabia.” 

Also Read: Boxing Updates: Joe Opetaia’s Team Breaks Silence on Any Boxer Being Dropped During Sparring Session Against Tyson Fury

Could Fury be dropped by anyone? Well, Usyk will answer that question in less than a month. On the 17th of February, billed as the ‘Ring of Fire’, a historic clash between WBA/WBO/IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk and WBC champion Tyson Fury will take place at the Kingdom Arena of Riyadh to determine who among them will be crowned the undisputed heavyweight champion.

Who do you think would win between Usyk and Fury? Let us know in the comments section below.

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