Joseph Parker denies report of Tyson Fury being dropped by Jai Opetaia in sparring

Joseph Parker wants to put all the rumors surrounding Tyson Fury's training camp to bed.

'The Gypsy King' is currently slated to return to the boxing ring on Feb. 17. That night in Saudi Arabia, Fury will face Oleksandr Usyk in the biggest fight of his career. The winner of that bout will become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis.

With that in mind, the British boxer decided to make every effort in terms of preparation. One of Fury's moves was to bring in undefeated cruiserweight star Jai Opetaia into training camp. Suddenly, the Australian left after only reportedly sparring five rounds with the heavyweight.

Instantly, there were rumors that Fury was dropped in training, which led to Opetaia's fast exit. Ultimately, the cruiserweight's promoters later released a statement hitting back at that claim. Now, Parker wants to put it to bed for good.

The former champion himself is in training camp right now with Fury and others to prepare for a March return against Zhilei Zhang. Speaking with Boxing King Media, Parker was asked about the claim.

Parker responded (via Boxing Social):

“Sparring is sparring but a lot of people will make up stories... I know that Tyson never got dropped and I want to go online and say ‘hey guys, he didn’t’, but I don’t want to be a part of that, I just want to save my energy for my fight.”

Check out his comments below (12:00):

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Joseph Parker offers prediction for Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk

He's absolutely biased, but Joseph Parker believes that Tyson Fury will become the undisputed champion next month.

In the aforementioned interview, the Australian boxer was asked a lot about 'The Gypsy King'. While he downplayed rumors that he was dropped by Jai Opetaia in training, he also previewed his friend's fight with Oleksandr Usyk.

As of now, the betting odds between the two are razor close. Furthermore, it seems that most boxers are split on the matchup itself. However, the last unified heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis, picked Fury to win earlier this month.

That sounds about right to one, Joseph Parker. When asked for a prediction for Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk by Boxing King Media, he responded:

“You know who I am going for, you know who I am backing, I am very biased in that sense...I just know that Tyson is going to take care of business, he’s going to be the undisputed champion and it’s going to be great.”