Fury and Usyk will collide on February 17 May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

THE UNDISPUTED CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT BETWEEN OLEKSANDR USYK AND TYSON FURY GETTING POSTPONED SUCKS, BUT IT’S FAR FROM THE FIRST TIME THAT BOXING FANS HAVE EXPERIENCED A HEAVYWEIGHT BUZZKILL

The cut over Tyson Fury’s eye looked raw, pink as bubble gum, and was big enough that you could probably fit another eyeball in it. It was one of those nasty gashes that can happen in training camp, usually by freak accident.

Naturally, Fury’s highly anticipated bout with heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk was postponed until May. Social media was soon aflame with silly comments from the anti-Fury brigade, all convinced that “The Gypsy King” was using the cut as an excuse to pull out of the fight. 

It may be frustrating when a major fight is postponed, but injuries have been delaying fights ever since men began fighting for money. In 1900, Bob Fitzsimmons postponed a bout with Gus Ruhlin because his pet lion bit his hand. Things happen. 

If there’s a king of cancellation, it might be that other Tyson, the one known as “Iron Mike,” who had a penchant for stalling bouts. 

Frank Bruno would probably agree, pointing to their first bout. That one was set for September 1988 but was stalled because Mike Tyson was dickering over his contract with his soon-to-be-fired manager, Bill Cayton. The new October 8 date fell through, and then the October 22 replacement was canceled when Tyson injured his hand in a 4 a.m. street brawl with Mitch Green. If that were not enough, the bout was canceled again when Tyson crashed his BMW into a tree in Catskill, New York, giving himself a concussion and a brief case of amnesia. Tyson and Bruno eventually fought in February 1989, five months after the initial date. Tyson won by KO in the fifth. 

Mike Tyson-Frank Bruno 1 was postponed several times for various Tyson-related reasons, but it only delayed the inevitable. (Photo by Brendan Monks/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

Tyson’s other postponed fights would include his 1990 bout with Alex Stewart, rescheduled because Tyson was butted in training and needed 48 stitches over his right eye (for those wondering, the sparring partner was Greg Page); a scheduled 1991 bout with Evander Holyfield, canceled because of a Tyson rib injury; his 1995 bout with Buster Mathis Jr., which was delayed because Tyson broke his thumb; his 1997 rematch with Holyfield (which was a bigger deal than Fury-Usyk), postponed because Tyson was butted in the gym and sustained a small cut; and his 2001 bout with Brian Nielsen, delayed because Tyson had a back problem.  

Gerry Cooney pulled out of his fight against Larry Holmes more than once. (Photo: The Ring Magazine)

Sometimes Tyson didn’t even need to be injured to cancel a fight. A 1989 bout scheduled with Donovan “Razor” Ruddock was called off because Tyson had pneumonia, and his 1996 fight with Bruce Seldon was delayed when Tyson developed bronchitis. 

Though Fury-Usyk is a major heavyweight event, the Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney fight of 1982 was even bigger as far as American mainstream interest. Holmes was the long-reigning WBC titleholder, and Cooney was the likable, if inexperienced, top contender. The bout was the biggest heavyweight attraction since the heyday of Muhammad Ali. Yet Cooney had a history of injuries, and no one was shocked when he pulled out with a bum shoulder. 

The Holmes camp reacted accordingly, accusing Cooney of faking the injury so he could have more time to train. The reality was that Cooney, though a very big man, was fragile. Prior to the Holmes bout, Cooney was scheduled to fight a tune-up against veteran Joe Bugner. That event was canceled when Cooney pulled a muscle in his back. An exhibition with Bugner was set a month later, but Cooney pulled out again, with a sore shoulder. A year earlier, Cooney had pulled out of a bout with Earnie Shavers, due to a torn muscle. Prior to that, he’d postponed a bout with Jimmy Young when he suffered a cut on his eyelid during training. A 1979 bout with Mike Koranicki was canceled after Cooney fractured a bone in his left hand hitting the bag in the gym. 

Whether or not he’d used the extra time to prepare for Holmes, Cooney was simply out of his league when the fight finally happened. In June of 1982, three months after the original date. Holmes stopped him in the 13th. In the year after the Holmes bout, Cooney postponed a fight with Phil Brown because of an injury to his left hand.  

A leaky schnoz caused Rocky Marciano to delay his rematch with Jersey Joe Walcott.

Rocky Marciano was a reliable sort of champion, but even he pulled out of a fight. The eagerly anticipated 1953 rematch between Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott was only days away when Rocky bowed out. The reason? A bloody nose. 

It was sparring partner Tommy Harrison who smacked Rocky on the snout, causing it to spew a gusher of red. What made the injury unusual was that it wouldn’t let up. A nose specialist examined the champ and determined two small vessels had been ruptured. The fight was delayed six weeks. When they finally got around to it, Marciano won in the first round.

No less than the great Sugar Ray Robinson postponed a few of his 201 career bouts. He once pulled out of a fight because he simply wasn’t in shape. Another time, a doctor postponed the fight after Robinson’s pre-fight examination, saying Robinson was tired and needed rest. His 1955 contest with middleweight champion Bobo Olson was the culmination of a comeback for Robinson, who had left boxing for two years to pursue a career in show business. In his Greenwood Lake, New York, training camp, however, Robinson sprained his ankle and needed a month to recover. He recuperated and knocked Olson out. The ankle was fine and the title was Robinson’s again. 

Thomas Hearns and Marvelous Marvin Hagler gave us one of the classic fights of all time in 1985, but the first time they were scheduled for battle was back in 1982. The bout was set for Windsor, Ontario, when Hearns stumbled while jogging around an indoor track. He landed awkwardly on his right hand. His camp revealed he had an injured pinky and requested a postponement. Promoter Bob Arum eventually pulled the plug on the fight – ticket sales were sluggish, and the two camps couldn’t agree on where the rescheduled fight should take place. 

In the coming years, Hearns would cancel other bouts because of injuries, but the wounded pinky continued to draw derisive laughter from his critics. Hagler, in particular, wouldn’t let it go. “Guys in the street would cut that pinky off for a million dollars,” Hagler said. 

Thomas Hearns’ injured pinkie became an object of ridicule for Marvelous Marvin Hagler ahead of their classic matchup. (Photo b Jacques M. Chenet/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Yet Hagler was one to talk. He had a history of cancellations, too. He postponed many of his early bouts because of the flu. A 1982 bout with Fulgencio Obelmejias was delayed when Hagler injured a rib in training, and a 1983 bout with Wilford Scypion was stalled when Hagler claimed an injured knee. 

The most high-profile Hagler postponement was his title defense against John “The Beast” Mugabi. Originally set for the autumn of 1985, Hagler’s camp delayed that one when the Marvelous One claimed both a back injury and a broken nose. There was a small bit of scandal around that particular postponement, since some felt Hagler was simply partying too hard in those days and wasn’t in shape. Prior to his pulling out, Hagler had actually suggested the fight be postponed because he didn’t feel ready. Shortly after that, he was wearing a bandage on his nose. Coincidence? 

Following his knockout of Danny Williams in 2004, Vitali Klitschko was supposed to fight Hasim Rahman, but the fight was put off by injuries that ultimately led Klitschko to retire until 2008. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images).

Some fights just aren’t meant to happen. Vitali Klitschko spent most of 2005 pulling out of a fight with Hasim Rahman. At the time, Klitschko was the heavyweight champion du jour, but a pulled thigh muscle caused him to postpone the fight. The bout was rescheduled, but Klitschko postponed it again because of a knee injury. Later that year, when the fight was given a third date, Klitschko injured the knee badly, this time requiring surgery and extended time off. He opted to retire, and fight fans were denied his bout with Rahman. Vitali came back to boxing in 2008 and carried on with his great career, but by then Rahman had begun to fade out of the heavyweight title picture. 

Another one seemingly doomed from the start was a proposed 1982 bout pitting WBA heavyweight titlist Mike “Hercules” Weaver against Randall “Tex” Cobb. The fight was postponed when Weaver injured his shoulder in training. The rescheduled fight was put on pause when Cobb suffered a split lip. Before the fight could be set again, Don King stepped in with a contract stating Weaver had agreed to fight Michael Dokes that fall. So we never got Weaver-Cobb. Instead, Cobb went on to fight Holmes for the WBC title and lost a lopsided decision, while Weaver fought Dokes and was stopped in one.

Fury and Usyk are bound to have better luck than Hercules and Tex. 

Few fights were bigger than the 1974 bout in Kinshasa, Zaire, between heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. That one was postponed by a cut, too, and many have recalled it since the postponement of Fury-Usyk.

Foreman was cut in a sparring session just days before the fight’s original September date. Foreman’s cut was minor compared to Fury’s, and didn’t even require stitches. Foreman’s handler, Dick Sadler, fixed his fighter up with a homemade bandage, or “butterfly patch.” At first, thinking Foreman was canceling, Ali proposed Joe Frazier be flown in as his replacement.  

The circumstances of George Foreman’s cut (you can see the bandage over his right eye) were similar to those in the Fury camp. (Photo by UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

It was sparring partner Bill McMurray who accidentally cut Foreman. McMurray was one of Foreman’s Sacramento neighbors, a retired journeyman fighter well into his 30s who was now driving trucks for a living. Still, McMurray was tall and could do a passable recreation of the Ali style. He was happy to come to Africa and help his friend train. McMurray and Foreman were wearing the 16-ounce pillow gloves when the cut happened. Foreman was moving in, and McMurray covered up. When they separated, both were spackled with drips of blood. 

Archie Moore, who was working in the Foreman camp, later said the cut was all Foreman’s fault. Moore claimed Foreman had bragged he could knock a man out with the 16-ounce gloves, and was tearing into McMurray. Moore and others had yelled at Foreman to ease up, but the champ was determined to prove he could knock McMurray out with the oversized mitts. Not surprisingly, McMurray covered up and Foreman walked into his elbow. 

The injury was dubbed “the cut heard ‘round the world” and inspired a lot of ridiculous speculation. McMurray purportedly wept when he heard the richest fight in history was in jeopardy. “It’s just an incredible shame,” McMurray said. Of course, “The Greatest” had plenty to say. “He’s (McMurray) going to go down in history with the guy who shot Lincoln,” Ali said.

The bout was postponed for more than a month. The big issue with the delay was that Africa’s rain season was coming. The event was to take place in an open-air stadium. The original September date had been set to predate the rains. With the delay, it was likely that the fight would take place in a rainstorm, which would be dangerous. The cut also brought up rumors that Foreman would leave Africa and that the fight would be canceled. Sounding like some of Fury’s critics, Ali accused Foreman of being scared. “Keep an eye on all the boats,” Ali warned. “I want the airports guarded.” Ali even suggested the cut wasn’t real, that the whole incident was a fake. “He is scared to death,” Ali said of Foreman. “He wishes he could get out of the whole thing.” Despite Ali’s kidding, the Zaire government was genuinely concerned that Foreman and Ali might leave Africa, and that the big fight would be rescheduled in America. 

The cut had another effect. It gave Ali’s fans hope. Prior to the cut, Foreman had seemed like an indestructible punching machine. Now he seemed human. He bled like anyone else. But when Ali stopped Foreman in the eighth, the cut hadn’t been a factor at all.  

McMurray passed away in 2016. His son, Keith, also a fighter, claimed the cut had an impact on the fight that no one knew about. Keith told the Sacramento Bee that McMurray spent the delay in Ali’s camp offering trade secrets about Foreman. This is probably not true and was just a tall tale from a father to impress his son. But we can’t blame McMurray. He was only trying to put a positive spin on causing the cut heard ’round the world.