By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Bob Arum denies the rumors that WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury was handled and beaten up by the young 21-year-old prospect Jared Anderson during training camp for the postponed July 24th fight with Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder.
Well, we’ll take Arum’s word for it that Fury WASN’T beaten to a pulp by Jared Anderson (9-0, 9 KOs), but the horse is already out of the barn as far as the rumors go. Maybe Fury was, or perhaps he wasn’t, but if you’ve watched Jared Anderson fight, it’s VERY easy to believe the stories are true.
Jared Anderson = wrong style match-up for Fury
Anderson is a high-volume combination puncher that never stops throwing, and he’s excellent on the inside. Fury’s whole game is about dodging single power shots and then clubbing his opponents at close range. That approach works poorly against combination punchers like Anderson because he doesn’t throw just one shot.
It’s a bit late for Arum to be speaking up about it because fans already have made up their mind that Jared worked Fury over royally.
Like a good promoter, Arum did an excellent job with his damage control, denying the sparring stories of the 6’4″ Anderson wiping the deck with an out-of-shape Fury during the last camp.
Unfortunately, Arum is the wrong one to be denying this, especially with so many people backing up the rumors. It’s hard to know what the big deal is, though. I mean, so what if Jared Anderson beat up a blubbery Fury in camp?
If someone not connected to Top Rank were to confirm that Anderson didn’t royally thrash Fury, it would be more convincing. But when you’re talking about the promoter, who is like a PR guy, how do you expect to know if you’re getting the truth or not? I’m just saying.
If you saw what Fury looked like before he started camp, it’s no shock that Jared gave him pure hell during camp.
It’s just interesting that Fury got COVID-19 right after and makes it look more than a little suspicious. If Fury is getting bruised and battered by Jared during camp, his COVID might have saved him from a terrible fate had gone through with the July 24th fight with Wilder.
“Better, and why do I say that? Because I don’t talk to him about it, and I don’t talk to his camp about it. I talk his sparring partners,” said Bob Arum to Fighthype when asked if Fury had a better training camp for Saturday’s fight than he did 20 months ago when he fought Wilder in 2020.
“I talk to Efe [Ajagba] and Jared [Anderson], who are Top Rank fighters that will be on this great undercard, and have been sparring with him [Fury]. They tell me he’s sharper this fight than last fight, and SugarHill [Steward] tells me the same thing.
“That’s not true, but Anderson gives him hell in sparring, and Tyson tells me that Jared Anderson is a future heavyweight champion of the world,” said Arum in denying the rumors that Jared Anderson beat up Fury during his last training camp for the postponed July 24th fight against Deontay. “I don’t know if they have footage,” said Arum.
Fury will be facing Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) this Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
On the undercard, Jared Anderson will be facing Vladimir Tereshkin (22-0-1, 12 KOs) in a 10 round fight.