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Tommy Fury says chest infection and broken rib forced him to withdraw from Jake Paul fight

Fury breaks down why he needed to pull out of his Dec. 18 Showtime PPV with Jake Paul.

Jake Paul v Tyron Woodley Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
Wil Esco is an assistant editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2014.

Tommy Fury has come out to give a public statement on his withdrawal from the Jake Paul fight, scheduled for Showtime PPV on Dec. 18, which will now be replaced by Jake Paul vs Tyron Woodley 2. During the video Fury details how he contracted a chest infection during training camp before subsequently suffering a rib injury which ultimately forced him to pull out of the fight.

“So guys, I’m sure all you seen and heard the news as to why I’m not fighting on December 18th. Just thought I’d come on here and tell you myself. Training camp couldn’t have gone any better for me first week, two weeks. But then I contracted a bacterial chest infection which let me go to the gym and just not be able to breathe.

“You know, 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, 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 to fight no matter what.’

“And four weeks passed and we decided to have a sparring session and I took a little clip to the body, 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 grabbed 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. I’m going to insert the picture here so you can see for yourself, and multiple fractures.

“I still for the following week thought ‘do you know what, it’ll be fine, I can fight.’ It took the doctor and my whole team to really say ‘listen, you’ve got a broken rib and multiple fractures here, like you can’t fight.’ And even now sitting here and filming this video it hasn’t really sank in that I’m not fighting. All my focus now is on getting a new fight date set and recovery, that’s all I can do. 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 out there, that’s the fight I want next...everybody’s gonna have their own opinions about the situation and what they think but there’s nothing, when it comes down to it, I can do about being medically unfit to fight.”

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