JARRELL MILLER has countered talk of Tyson Fury decking him seven times in a sparring session by suggesting he saw Fury “hump a donkey” the equivalent amount of times.
This, the latest twist in the Anthony Joshua-Jarrell Miller-Tyson Fury saga, will of course be taken about as seriously as the American’s chances of dethroning Joshua on June 1 at Madison Square Garden, New York, but, at the very least, it represents an inventive use of a right to reply.
“I hired him for two weeks sparring but ended up sending him home after one day,” said Fury. “I put him down seven times in the first spar and sent him packing back to the USA.”
Miller, however, yesterday rubbished these claims, insisting the truth is quite the opposite.
Speaking to IFL TV, he said, “I’ve seen Tyson Fury hump a donkey seven times. What the f***, bro? People just talk s*** cos it sounds good, bro. It’s never happened. It’s never happened.
“I hit Tyson Fury with so many left hooks in the head and body in the one camp I went to it’s amazing.”
Fury, as it turned out, was just the warm-up for ‘Big Baby’ Miller on Tuesday. The main target of his vitriol was his next opponent, Anthony Joshua, someone the undefeated challenger accused of using therapeutic use exemptions (TUE) since the start of his professional career and putting on muscle mass at a wholly unnatural rate.
“This motherf***** has TUE test exemptions for testosterone and all kinds of s***,” Miller said. “I have been doing my research. Who comes out of the Olympics at 220lbs and goes to 240lbs in a year?”
Let the games begin.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game: Anthony Crolla is challenging Vasyl Lomachenko for his WBA and WBO lightweight titles in Los Angeles on April 12 and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
The fight has received backlash – more aimed at the fight itself than Crolla, it should be said – but Crolla, 34-6-3 (13), has simply played by the rules, worked his way towards a number one contender slot, and will now give it his all against arguably the best pound-for-pound boxer on the planet. It might not be competitive, no, nor pretty, but it’s hard to begrudge someone like Crolla, a former WBA champion who has had his fair share of ups and downs, the opportunity to do the unthinkable and make a decent wedge of money in the process.
“Lomachenko is a great talent, but Anthony is in great shape and ready for this chance,” Crolla’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, told the Daily Mail.
“It’s a huge opportunity for Anthony. He has earned his stripes and is a former world champ who has fought the best.
“He won the final eliminator against (Daud) Yordan in November, and I’m happy he gets this chance now.”
Lomachenko, 12-1 (9), is a three-weight world champion who had been expected to fight Ghana’s Richard Commey, the new IBF champion, in an April unification fight. However, an injury to Commey put paid to that and opened the door for Crolla, the popular Mancunian who lifted his WBA title in November 2015 with a fifth-round knockout of Darleys Perez, only to lose it the following year to Jorge Linares.
One man’s misery is another man’s fortune, so they say, but, frankly, it’s hard to imagine anybody looking forward to fighting Vasyl Lomachenko.