This one change can help Tyson Fury prevent horror cuts in sparring, says veteran cutman Jacob 'Stitch' Duran
Tyson Fury has received some advice from famed cutman Jacob 'Stitch' Duran.
'The Gypsy King' is slated to face Oleksandr Usyk on May 18 in Saudi Arabia. However, as many fans likely know, the two heavyweights were scheduled to fight this weekend. The collision was set to crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 2000.
Unfortunately, fans will have to wait even longer to see Fury face the Ukrainian boxer. Earlier this month, the lineal heavyweight champion pulled out of the fight. As a result of a brutal cut that he suffered in sparring, the bout was postponed to May.
While Tyson Fury has apologized to both his team as well as Oleksandr Usyk, the heavyweight has remained under fire. While he's not mad about the situation, Jacob 'Stitch' Duran believes it could've been avoided.
The longtime cut man has worked with the likes of the Klitschko brothers, and even 'The Gypsy King' himself. Speaking in a recent interview with SunSport, Duran gave Fury a little bit of advice to avoid cuts in the future.
In the interview, the cutman advised:
“There’s a lot of things that he can do in preparation and the final three or four weeks of preparation, if he wants to go hard, let him go hard. I would recommend the headgear that has a bar, evidently what happened is the shot came upwards. Yeah. It’s not that bad! It’s more just the timing was bad than anything else.”
See the sparring session that derailed Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk
In boxing, just about anything can happen, and Tyson Fury now knows that well.
Not long following the British boxer's withdrawal from the contest, fans slammed him. Both Usyk's manager, Egis Klimas and his promoter, Alex Krassyuk, questioned if the cut was legitimate.
However, photos of the cut quickly emerged and showed that it was legitimate. Not long after, a video of the infamous sparring session that led to Fury's withdrawal was released on social media.
In the clip, Tyson Fury was sparring with fellow heavyweight contender Agron Smakici. The smaller man gets into the clinch with the champion and lands a small shot. That shot split through the headguard, slicing open Fury.
If the British boxer had the specified head guard that Jacob 'Stitch' Duran recommended, he would be boxing Oleksandr Usyk this month. Unfortunately, fans will need to wait a little bit longer.