Tommy Fury is in bad shape, but wants everyone to know that he is determined to step into the ring with Jake Paul.
The British reality television star and pro boxer released a video Monday evening to further elaborate on why he has been forced to withdraw from his Dec. 18 boxing match with YouTuber-turned-boxing star Jake Paul. Tyron Woodley, who lost a split decision to Paul in August, has been selected as Fury’s replacement.
Fury said in a statement that he was suffering from a chest infection and a broken rib, and in his video he elaborated on how the severity of those afflictions affected him.
“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,” Fury said. “I was in my sparring sessions, pad work sessions, whatever it may be, just not being being able to breathe and coughing up huge amounts of phlegm all the time.”
“It led 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,” he continued. “Four weeks passed and we decided to have a sparring session 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 for 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.”
Fury’s video includes documentation and X-rays of his injuries.
In response to Fury’s withdrawal, Paul has been less sympathetic, first attacking Fury for not fighting through his medical condition in his own video post announcing the change to the fight, then further insulting Fury during an appearance on The MMA Hour.
According to Fury, he had still planned to compete until others strongly advised him against it.
“I still for the following week thought it’ll be fine, I can fight, and then it really took the doctor and my whole team to really say, ‘Listen, you’ve got a broken rib and multiple fractures here, you can’t fight,’” Fury said. “Even now sitting here filming this video it hasn’t really sunk in that I’m not fighting.”
Fury insists that he is not moving on from the Paul matchup, which has been built up for months now and that boxing Paul is the only fight he is currently interested in.
“All my focus is on right now is getting a new fight date set and recovering,” Fury said. “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 2 takes place on Dec. 18 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. The event will be broadcast live on Showtime pay-per-view.