Carl Froch jokes leaked Tyson Fury spar was filmed on old Nokia as George Groves expresses surprise on severity of cut

06/02/2024 12:37

Tyson Fury’s leaked sparring footage which led to his horror eye cut doesn’t prove anything with it appearing as though it was filmed on an old Nokia.

That is according to former world champion Carl Froch, who has hit out at the quality of the ‘horrible’ and ‘grainy’ footage.

Boxing fans were dealt a huge blow last week when Fury’s undisputed bout against heavyweight rival Oleksandr Usyk was pushed back until May 18.

The Gypsy King, who was scheduled to fight the unbeaten Ukrainian on February 17, suffered a gruesome eye injury in sparring.

Leaked footage shows Fury being caught with an apparent elbow by Argon Smakici, but Froch, who has questioned whether the Mancunian will even face Usyk in May, has been left with more questions than answers regarding the clip.

Speaking on his Verdict show alongside former foe George Groves, Froch was asked whether he thinks Fury will be ready for May 18.

To which he said: “I’m not so sure, no. Why is he sparring the way he is? To start with, I wasn’t sure about the cut, I wanted to see him stitched up.

“After seeing Tyson Fury on Instagram, the cut to me doesn’t look like an acute injury, it looks like an injury that’s healing, it’s scabbed over, and the swelling has already come down and the bruising is showing.

“It looks about a week to ten day’s old, what significance that has I don’t know…”

He continued: “And that sparring footage, it may or may not have been the right footage, but it must have been filmed on a Nokia 8210.

“Because it was blurry, it was horrible and then we never saw the cut after he got elbowed.

“He definitely got elbowed in the face in that sparring, but where’s the clear footage and the cut, when did it happen?”

Giving his say on Fury’s gash, Groves expressed his shock at the severity of the cut, insisting it is the worst injury he has seen from a spar.

He remarked: “I’ve never seen a cut that bad from sparring. Sometimes you get a tiny little [cut], you do get bruises, and then there’s a tiny nick.

“But it doesn’t even bleed, but will be gone in a couple of days, it doesn’t even need a stitch.

“He’s had a lot of scarring over his eyes, he’s had bad cuts before, it might be the same eye I’m not sure, but to get that bad of a cut in sparring, it’s unlucky.

“Because that’s not a cut you can quickly get over, don’t get me wrong, if he really wanted to fight, he could have stitched it up, get stitches out in five days, do your best to heal it as best as you can, stick a load of Vaseline on it.

“It would likely open in the fight, but you could still get through the fight, and I’m sure there will be dozens and dozens of fighters that would be testament to them getting just fight fit, passing the doctor to be able to box.

“But maybe that’s just a sign of Fury still believes in himself and that the most important thing for himself is to just beat Usyk, he’s not in it for the money, he is willing to park whatever that mega pay day was and delay it.”