Stitch Duran reveals how Tyson Fury plans to avoid eye injury during Deontay Wilder rematch

Tyson Fury’s new cutman Jacob ‘Stitch’ Duran has revealed the medical measures the heavyweight has taken to prevent a repeat injury to his eye in his rematch with Deontay Wilder this weekend.

Fury, 31, suffered a gruesome cut above his right eye in the third round of his September clash with relatively unknown Swede Otto Wallin.

The cut obscured Fury’s vision throughout the contest and would have led to a loss via technical knockout if the fight had been stopped on medical grounds.

Fury will face Wilder at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, on Saturday, in his first fight since suffering the injury, attempting to avenge the December 2018 bout with the American that was controversially ruled a draw by judges.

Experienced cutman Duran, who has worked with Andre Ward and Wladimir Klitschko in the past, explained how Fury has sought to prevent a similar wound opening up again under the strain of Wilder’s enormous punching power.

“Tyson has had a mesh web inserted into his soft tissue where the cut is in order to strengthen it,” Duran told VegasInsider.

“Whenever you put a web on something it’s only going to give it that additional support. The advantage is you protect it while also having the natural healing. That tissue is going to grow into the webbing, so now you have an extra layer which will all mesh into one.”

Wilder described the injury as “the worst cut I’ve seen in my life” after the Wallin fight, and threatened to target it again in the rematch. “I’m going to pop it right back open,” the undefeated heavyweight said. “He can get plastic surgery, duck tape or staples, Super Glu or Hot Glue, Cement Glu. S***, he can go get some of that Flex Glu. It ain’t even going to matter.”

In a recent interview with SkySports, Wallin joked that Wilder, 34, should give him a cut of his purse if the cut opens again and Fury loses the fight.

But Duran, 68, allayed fears that the injury could reopen and threaten the outcome of the bout.

“His eyebrow is excellent, it won’t be an issue,” he said. “I spoke to him yesterday after training and said to him: ‘everybody in the world is concerned about the cut except you and I’. So that is how we feel right now.”

Duran is a new addition to the Fury camp, along with trainer SugarHill Steward and former middleweight champion Andy Lee.

Steward, nephew of legendary coach Emanuel ‘Manny’ Steward, replaced Ben Davison as Fury’s trainer in December.

Davison was credited with Fury’s remarkable weight loss before his first clash with Wilder but was criticised by the heavyweight’s father John after his points victory over Wallin.

Duran praised Steward’s methods days before the fight that sees the lineal heavyweight championship of the world and WBC belt on the line.

“I’ve worked with SugarHill and his fighters many times over many years and we understand each other,” said Duran. “That style which he brought in from Emanuel is a very effective system. I’m confident in SugarHill and I’m excited to work with Tyson.”