Arum stands up for Fury after scrapping his fight with Usik in February

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said that WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury should not be blamed for the failure of his fight against WBA, WBO and IBF titleholder Oleksandr Usyk in February this year.

Arum believes that any boxer could have been in the shoes of Fury, who then suffered a last-minute dissection in sparring.

"It happens. One of the greatest fights we remember is the 'Jungle Rumble', Ali vs. Foreman. People forget that that fight was also postponed, I think, for six weeks because Foreman got a dissection in training. That's boxing, it happens.

Fighters wear helmets and so on, but there's still a lot of contact going on and injuries can happen. It's not something that hasn't happened before, hasn't happened in major heavyweight title fights. It's happened before," Arum said in an interview with YouTube channel BoxNation.

Fury vs. Usik is expected to take place on May 18 in Saudi Arabia.