Tyson Fury shares heartbreaking news, PFL head claims they beat UFC, Khamzat Chimaev shares family struggle: MMA News Roundup
PFL Super Fights card has seemingly made more money than UFC pay-per-views. Elsewhere, Tyson Fury shared heartbreaking news ahead of his upcoming rematch against Oleksandr Usyk.
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Tyson Fury details wife Paris' miscarriage
Tyson Fury shared how he was struck by a family tragedy just before his first fight with Oleksandr Usyk. Speaking at Wednesday's press conference ahead of the rematch on Dec. 21, the British boxer revealed that his wife Paris had suffered a miscarriage on the eve of the previous match.
As per Fury's statement, Paris was six months pregnant with the couple's eighth child - a boy - when the miscarriage happened. However, she did not share the news with Fury, who was preparing for the WBC world heavyweight title fight in Saudi Arabia.
Fury said:
"The [child] that she was having, she lost that on the Friday of the fight, which was pretty s****y. She was six months pregnant. It's not like a small miscarriage at the beginning."
He continued:
"You have to physically give birth to a dead child, on your own, while your husband is in a foreign country. To go through that on your own isn't good. I could not be there for her at that moment. And that's tough for me." [H/t Sky Sports]
Despite being shielded from the news, Fury's gut feeling told him something was wrong when Paris refused to fly to Saudi Arabia for the fight even after Turki Alalshikh offered a private jet.
Fury added that figuring out that the tragedy may have happened did not have an impact on his fight against Usyk, which he lost via split decision.
PFL chairman Donn Davis claims the Francis Ngannou PPV beat UFC's revenue
PFL's co-founder and chairman Donn Davis claimed in a Town Hall interview with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck that the promotion's Battle of the Giants card, headlined by Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira, beat every UFC pay-per-view event of 2024.
Davis said:
"This event, by our research, beat every viewership number of every UFC event this year and was very, very close to Ring of Fire... So, that was really something. That was our stretch goal and that's what we achieved."
Watch Donn Davis' comments below (31:10):
Davis has recently made several such claims about outdoing the UFC, given the latter is their primary competitor in MMA.
However, Ariel Helwani does not think that is a good tactic on the PFL's part. In a fan Q&A on his new show, the veteran journalist said that Davis' comments could make the fans feel "offended" and "slighted." He added that the PFL should not be in the pay-per-view business.
Khamzat Chimaev opens up on son's health
Khamzat Chimaev is not someone who openly discusses his family life in interviews or on social media. In a rare moment ahead of UFC 308, he told ESPN MMA's Brett Okamoto about his son's health issues.
'Borz' revealed that after the upcoming fight with Robert Whittaker at UFC 308, Chimaev plans on returning to Sweden for his one-and-a-half-year-old son's medical procedure:
"I [am] going back to Sweden. My son has one surgery; [will have a] second one. But everything is good, thank God, but one more after the fight. So after that, my son will be healthy. So yeah. Let's see."
When asked about the nature of the surgery, Chimaev said that his son has only one kidney and suffers from a condition that is common among kids.
Check out Khamzat Chimaev's comments below (7:40):
Chimaev also opened up on personal battle with poor health and depression in the interview.