Egis Klimas on the number of times Fury dodged Usyk: ‘If My Memory is Correct, It’s the Fifth Time’

Right up front, let me say I am not of the belief that Tyson Fury cut himself or orchestrated getting sliced above his right eye to dodge a planned foe scrap against Oleksandr Usyk on Feb 17.

Plenty of others are willing to heavily imply or even outright state they think this cut/postponement for the heavyweight tussle in Saudi Arabia isn’t on the up and up. Usyk’s manager Egis Klimas indeed didn’t back off, hours after telling Joe Santoliquito from RING he thought Fury staged this hiccup. I haven’t heard a compelling reason as to WHY Fury would stoop so low. As if to stave off rumor mongering, he posted a pic showing off a sleek (for him) physique.

Eight hours after the news broke and six hours after Klimas unloaded to RING, the manager told me that he’s not backtracking. “He is a guy who avoiding Usyk for so long. If my memory is correct, it’s the fifth time,” he told me on a plane to Spain to see Usyk in camp. “(If someone) is a big fan of his, no problem, nobody believed Usyk can beat AJ, and now nobody believes he will beat Tyson. This is what keeps him motivated, and he will prove who is the best. Regarding the frying pan, I really mean it.”

Ok, some people are of the belief that nah, no one’s that crazy to stage such a scene. I beg to differ.  It was 1990, May. I was at college. I hadn’t properly studied for an exam and can’t recall the exact class. So, in my infinite wisdom, I concocted a scheme. No, I didn’t slice my eye or ask a pal to smash me with a pan.  I did, however, punch myself above the eye a few times, enough to cause swelling and bruising. I did that the morning of the exam, then marched into class and begged off from the exam.

I mumbled as if afflicted with a broken jaw that I’d been jumped the night before. Unknown assailants had targeted me as I walked back to housing from the library. The professor said, “Of course, that’s horrible; you can make up the exam.”

Point being: People will and do come up with creative ways to avoid things. Did Fury do a self-blade job to buy himself more time to get ready for a skilled foe? I’d need evidence to say that. But there is no need to convince me that people could pursue such a strange “fix” as allowing oneself to be brained by a frying pan.

Michael Woods

Michael Woods got addicted to boxing in 1990, when Buster Douglas shocked the world with his demolition of the then-impregnable Mike Tyson. The Brooklyn-based journalist has covered the sport since for ESPN The Magazine, ESPN.com, Bad Left Hook and RING. His journalism career started with NY Newsday in 1999. Michael Woods is also an accomplished blow by blow and color man, having done work for Top Rank, DiBella Entertainment, EPIX, and for Facebook Fightnight Live, since 2017.

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