TYSON FURY could barely run three miles a month before his epic trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder.
Fury’s preparations for his third clash with the American were rocked by Covid and daughter Athena’s stint in the intensive care unit at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Hospital.
Dad John encouraged his son to keep busy during his stay at the hospital by going for a run and was left stunned when he outpaced the Gypsy King.
He told Sky Sports: “I went to Alder Hey Hospital, I accompanied him just to keep him right.
“I said, ‘Look, you’ve got to do some form of exercise, just don’t sit in here.
“Let’s go for a bit of a run, you’ll feel better after it.’
“I’m 56 years old, 20 stone, I outran him. We went for a run round Liverpool and his lungs were on fire, I thought, ‘Look at this’.
“My lungs? You couldn’t hear them. He struggled with a three-mile run.
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“He said afterwards, ‘That nearly killed me.’ So that’s where he was at four weeks prior to that big night.”
Pulling out of the fight never crossed Fury’s mind, although his old man reckons he should’ve postponed the Sin City showdown.
John continued: “He was going to do it anyway, so what I said was: ‘OK then, I’ll try to make the best of a bad job. I’ll fill him full of confidence’.
“But deep down inside I was worried because I thought ‘you know what, he shouldn’t be doing this’.
“There’s a power to be in boxing, Tyson wanting to stand up for his country knowing Anthony Joshua just lost his belts at home, two miles from where he lives.
Deep down inside I was worried
John Fury on Tyson Fury’s preparations for Deontay Wilder
“He thought: ‘You know what, I can’t be like this man, I’ve got to do my own thing, stand for my country.
“‘Win, lose or draw it’s on!'”
John was immensely proud of his son’s soldiering on, saying: “I can only commend my son, there’ll never be another man like Tyson Fury ever in the sport of boxing.
“I told him: ‘You’re that good, it’s scary!’
“He’s the full package, he’s proven everything, there’s nothing more for him to prove.
“If he walked away today he’s done his business, won every professional title there is to win.
“He’s a remarkable human being, so embrace him while he’s here because when he’s gone, he’s gone, and then you’re back to the boring stuff – the losing.
“The belts will be gone because – let me tell you something – it’ll be a long time before those heavyweight belts are held here again because I think once they leave these shores when Tyson’s gone they’re staying gone.”
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Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
