By: Sean Crose
“This just might be the downfall or the end of Tyson Fury,” former world titlist Tim Bradley said on the Deep Waters podcast Tuesday. To say that’s a bold statement is something of an understatement. For WBC heavyweight champion Fury has been one of the most dominant fighters in his division for years now. The towering Englishman has also been through 35 fights, some of them quite challenging, and he’s never lost a one (though he did fight Deontay Wilder to a draw in the first of their three intense matches). Yet Bradley isn’t the type to make wild, random statements, at least not in public.
His words on the podcast came in the context of the heavyweight championship fight between Fury and Oleksandr Usyk being postponed on account of a cut Fury reportedly suffered while sparing. According to reports, which were quickly accompanied by an unclear video, Fury was elbowed in the eye while working with a sparring partner. Bradley, however, wasn’t buying that Fury was elbowed. “I smell something,” he said on Deep Waters. “I smell bullshit, that’s what I smell. If you go and you look at that video, first of all the video had to be shot with a Samsung or something like that because the quality was all grainy…it looks disgusting.”
Yet Bradley was just getting started. “When you look at it in slow motion,” he said of the video, “did that elbow, which looked deliberate, land on the eye of Tyson Fury? No. the punch landed on the chin of Tyson Fury.” Bradley went on to say that the man sparring Fury on the day in question said his punch landed on the eye. “I smell something fishy man,” Bradley added. Not that Bradley thought the gash above Fury’s eye was fake. To the contrary. “I see the cut,” he said. “I get it.” Still, he made it clear that the whole video, which has been said to be evidence of an elbow induced cut, might be a psy-op. “This could be a set up,” he added. “I understand the cut is there, and things happen, but that elbow looked freakin’ deliberate.”
Ultimately, Bradley thinks the cut won’t be a major issue as far as the fight actually going down is concerned. “I don’t think the cut will be a factor at all,” he said. “I think the fight goes on.” If this proves to be true, WBC titlist Fury will finally be facing WBA, IBF, and WBO titlist Usyk on May 18th in Saudi Arabia for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.
