09 January 2024 , 11:28
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Tyson Fury was only sparring for four and six rounds during his training camp for Francis Ngannou, according to his training partner.
Heavyweight champion Fury suffered a close scare in his crossover fight against Ngannou last October as he was dropped and only won by a point in a controversial decision. The Brit was expected to make easy work of Ngannou to set up an undisputed fight against Oleksandr Usyk two months later, but Ngannou ended up being his toughest opponent of the past decade.
Ngannou left the ring relatively unscathed whilst Fury sported a black eye and grazed forehead. Martin Bakole, who competed on the undercard of the event, has been one of Fury's main sparring partners for his past fights and he wasn't surprised Ngannou gave him a run for his money.
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“To be honest, I was in Tyson Fury’s camp. If you watch my interview at the event when people are asking me, I was saying I will not be surprised to see Ngannou drop Tyson Fury, because, to be honest, Tyson was not 100 per cent focused in the gym. For me, my opinion is the signed contract with Usyk affected his mind for the Ngannou fight," Bakole told iFL TV.
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“I’ve never seen Tyson training like that. He was doing four rounds, six rounds in the gym for sparring. Maybe he’s watching this and knows he wasn’t 100 percent focused. That’s not the Tyson Fury I know when he was preparing for [Wladimir] Klitschko, [Derek[ Chisora, and Dillian Whyte. This was different.”
Fury is currently preparing for his undisputed fight against fellow world champion Usyk on February 17th. The Brit is hoping to put on a more decisive performance as he flew out to Saudi Arabia on New Year's Eve to continue his training camp. Fury goaded Usyk in his latest taunt by sending him a message after running through the mountains.
"Another big day of running in the f****ng mountains! Come on! Easy work, smashing Usyk's little rabbit face right in for him. Useless piece of s***," Fury said in the video whilst captioning the post: "Working hard for the undisputed heavyweight championship 2024" along with the hashtag "run rabbit run".