Former WBO heavyweight champion, Joseph Parker has responded to the recent speculation that Jai Opetaia dropped Tyson Fury in sparring.
Rumours circulated online that Fury was dropped a couple of times in sparring and sent Opetaia packing from camp after only sharing five rounds together.
Opetaia’s team were even forced to release a statement regarding the speculation.
Latest on World Cruiserweight champion @jaiopetaia1 … pic.twitter.com/iofuDrQd1G
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And speaking with Boxing King Media, Joseph Parker also denied any truth to the rumours.
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He said: “Sparring is sparring but a lot of people will make up stories. Nobody really knows what happens in sparring, only Tyson’s team know and Jai Opetaia knows. I think that he flew back home because he has got sparring that he wanted to do back home and Tyson is sparring who he is sparring.
Only they know what happened and only they have the proof, so I think all of these [rumours] are just stories from people who think they know what happened, but no one knows.”
“I know that Tyson never got dropped and I want to go online and say ‘hey guys, he didn’t’, but I don’t want to be a part of that, I just want to save my energy for my fight.”
Tyson Fury takes on Oleksandr Usyk on February 17th in Saudi Arabia to determine the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
