TYSON FURY once claimed Wladimir Klitschko “cheated” by allegedly using five dirty tricks before their epic 2015 fight.
Current WBC champ Fury, 34, beat Klitschko in Germany to end his nine-year grip on the WBA, IBF and WBO belts in November of that year.
But the Gypsy King laid bare the skulduggery he claims Klitschko used ahead of their battle to get the upper hand.
Here are the five ways Fury insists Klitschko cheated.
1 Weigh-in scales
Fury said: “Even the week of the fight, they messed around with the weigh-in scales to start with.
“They said I weighed 17st 9lbs – I’ve not been 17st 9lbs since I was about ten years old. It was another mind game because you think you’ve lost a stone in weight.
“Even my uncle Peter said, ‘I thought you’ve been eating? Have you not eaten your food?’
“I said, ‘I’m 18st 4lbs.’ We went back, on my scales – 18st 4lbs. So that was one little cheat.”
2 Stilts in his shoes
Fury – who also faced claims he tampered with his gloves in his rematch against Wilder – said: “I said to him across the weigh-in, ‘You’ve rigged the scales, while you’re at it you can take them heels out of your shoes as well’.
“He was as tall as me. Wladimir is 6ft 5ins, I don’t look up at a 6ft 5ins man. I said, ‘You’ve got stilts in your shoes, like platforms.’ So that was two things.”
3 Ring like a mattress
Speaking last year, Fury alleged: “The day of the fight, I go down to the venue like I do every time, to check the venue out and check the ring out.
“I get in the ring and there’s ten inches of foam in this ring. It was like a memory foam mattress.
“I got on it and I said to my dad and my uncle Peter, ‘I cannot fight in this ring.’ I felt like I was on the moon.
“It’s energy sapping and the thing is that I’m a mover, so he wanted to take the legs away.
“[Sky pundit] Johnny Nelson told me he was training on the same canvas in Austria in his training camp. So he was used to it.
“For the first time in a long time he was boxing someone who wasn’t bothered about how much money he was getting, who wasn’t bothered about winning his belts. I was there to win.
“If he’s done that to me, how many people has he done it to over the career? And how many people needed that money and didn’t say anything?
“I was like, ‘I don’t need the fight anyway, so let’s just go home.’ With an hour left to go there was still no fight on, we were going home. I had my flights planned to leave.
“In the end, Vitali Klitschko said, ‘Take it out.’ And then it was a normal canvas.”
4 Gloves like cushions
Fury said: “Then there was the problem with the gloves. In a world title fight as the mandatory challenger you can pick your gloves, whatever you want to wear.
“The gloves I ordered were puncher’s gloves and the gloves they gave me were like two big cushions. They said, ‘These are the gloves we have, take them or leave them.’
“I said, ‘You know what, give me the gloves, I’m not bothered about the gloves.’
“At that point we couldn’t fly any gloves in, it was too late in the day. So we took the s***ty gloves that I didn’t want.”
5 No one witnessed Klitschko’s hands being wrapped up
Fury said: “In championship fights a person from the opposite team comes in the changing room and watches you get [your hands] wrapped up.
“Vitali was in my changing room, so we sent my dad to go into his changing room and watch him get wrapped up.
“But by the time my dad’s got there, he’s already wrapped up, bandages on, gloves on, ready to go.
“So dad says, ‘Take them off or we’re going home again.’
‘CHEATING C***S’
“Anyway, my dad stormed out the changing room and had an argument with his manager, he said, ‘Come on, let’s go home, they’re cheating c***s.
“At that point I’m thinking, ‘God almighty, does it mean this much? Do you have to mess around this much to get a victory over a ten-to-one underdog?
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“Every single cheat he tried, we pulled him up on it, we made him change and play fair…
“I believe Wladimir Klitschko was already beaten before he got in the ring on the night.
“Watching him walk to the ring, he had the face of a loser straight away because all of his little antics didn’t work. All I had to do was go in there, play my part and win.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk