Fury also shared photos of X-rays he had done during a hospital visit.
Tommy Fury had every intention of fighting through his injuries to meet Jake Paul in the ring next weekend, but the severity of them had him reconsider that decision altogether.
Fury was forced to withdraw from his upcoming fight with Paul because of a bacterial chest infection and broken rib he had been dealing with throughout his training camp. The undefeated professional boxer was lambasted for his withdrawal, namely by Paul who accused Fury of wilting under the pressure that came with fighting him for what was going to be the most lucrative opportunity of his career.
Fury has denied this being the case and stood by his decision. He explained why in a nearly two-minute video shared on Monday that he hoped would quell any insinuation he withdrew for reasons that were not related to his health. Fury also provided evidence of hospital visits which included the X-rays that showed the injuries he sustained.
“Training camp couldn’t have gone any better for me for the first week, two weeks, but then I contracted a bacterial chest infection, which led to me going to the gym and just not being able to breathe,” said Fury. “I was in my sparring sessions, pad work sessions, whatever it may be, just not being able to breathe and coughing up huge amounts of phlegm all the time.
“It let me to sleepless nights and that went on for about four weeks because I had the mindset of I’m gonna keep training, I’m gonna get through this, I’m gonna have the fight no matter what,” continued Fury. “And four weeks passed and we decided to have a sparring sessions and I took a little clip to the body and because my body was so weak due to the virus inside of me…I instantly knew something wasn’t right. I was throwing up from the pain. I was doubled over. I literally got my bag and went straight to the hospital, straight from an MRI scan and I got the results back the same day and the results uncovered that I had a clean break in my rib and I had multiple fractures.”
The 22-year old then revealed he still wanted to fight Paul and was prepared to do so despite his condition. Fury continued to train for another week as if he was about to compete until his doctor and team sat him down to urge him against doing that.
Fury said that he will spend his time recovering and sorting out a new date for the fight with Paul, something that ‘The Problem Child’ has yet to commit to doing. Paul told Ariel Helwani during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour that he is not sure he wants to give Fury another chance at a big payday, even if he gets past his new opponent in Tyron Woodley.
“All my focus is on right now is getting a new fight date set and recovering,” said Fury. “That’s all I can do right now, I can’t do anything else apart from get my body right as quickly as possible and look for a new fight date with Jake Paul. There’s no other fight that I want out there, that’s the fight that I want next. Like I said, I’m just gonna recover now and hopefully we can work out a new date for next year.”
Paul vs. Woodley II serves as the headliner for the pay-per-view event set to take place on Saturday, Dec. 18, live from the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.