Tyson Fury described it as “an amazing journey”, and the latest stop is Wembley Stadium in front of more than 94,000 fans on Saturday night.
Four years ago ‘The Gypsy King’ was 400lbs, out of the ring and struggling with mental health issues. Most experts believed he would never fight again, let alone become a world champion again.
Now though Fury is set to defend his WBC, Ring magazine and lineal titles against fellow British star Dillian Whyte in one of the biggest boxing events ever staged in the UK.
Fury on that special comeback
At Wednesday’s final press conference Fury spoke about where he had come from, the depths from which he rose to come out of that hiatus and stun Deontay Wilder to scale boxing’s greatest summit once more.
“It has been an amazing journey. From where I started all those years ago to all the ups and downs, being fat as f**k, going through mental health and alcohol problems and all the rest of the stuff that I am not ashamed of – it is part of who I am.
“To coming back to being top of the world and having three big fights with old Deontay over there and now being back in England after all these years and now I am fighting my old pal Dillian Whyte for all the glory.
“Who would have thought it? We didn’t think we’d be doing 90-odd thousand at Wembley. You’ve got Mr Golden Bol**cks, who got stopped by a middleweight, and that’s it. Where is he now? We’re here, we’re representing and we’re going to put on a good show.”
Fury on Whyte – respect
While Fury of course could not resist that mention of Joshua, who is set to rematch with Oleksandr Usyk in July in a bid to regain his titles, ‘The Gypsy King’ has total focus on Whyte (28-2) ahead of Saturday night’s show.
“The fight is here, the big night is just a few days away, Dillian has landed, cameras are here so it is lights, camera, action!
“Training went well and I started working in about January for this fight and had seven weeks together with Sugar. We had a great preparation and there is never any complaints from me, we always do what we can do in training camps and do the best we can do on the night.
“Dillian has had a great training camp as well and he is a good fighting man. The fans are in for a real treat, 94,000 people are going to see a good tear-up. I know Dillian personally, he knows me and we are going to rock ‘n’ roll on the night, throw down and treat you all to a helluva barnstormer, don’t worry about that!”
Fury of course is not alone in being written off from time to time – for Whyte is has happened pretty much throughout his career. A fact that Tyson himself acknowledged on Wednesday.
“I am looking forward to an awesome, memorable night. This will break all records in Europe. For a boxing match between two old boys who people wrote off through most of our careers, we ain’t done bad, have we?
