Despite trying twice to name a date and get in the gym to put in the necessary work, Fury couldn’t halt the depressive slide his life was spiralling into and says the last six months have been hard to deal with.
Fury was stipulated to have to undergo stringent drug-testing procedures due accusations by the UK Anti-Doping agency of a failed test in 2015 and the triple title holder explained the constant visits became unbearable.
“They tested me about six times within a few weeks. Only recently three days ago last week they came to my house at 1:30 in the morning, tested me, and came back at 9 a.m. to test me again. What is this? Do you understand the treatment I’m getting off these people? They’re driving me mad,” Fury told Rolling Stone magazine.
“The last six months. All the negativity and all the nay-sayers talking about drugs and doping. But we knew it was absolutely rubbish. I have never ever taken a drug to help me boxing in my life. Never took a performance enhancing drug ever. Never even took an aspirin for a cold. I’m a natural. The only person that can beat me is me.
“I’ve not been in the gym for months. I’ve been AWOL. I’ve been out drinking, anything to get me mind off what’s been going on to me. You wouldn’t understand it if I told you. It’s so corrupt. And the real people inside of boxing know what’s going on. They know it.
“I’ve been out drinking, drugging, acting like a lunatic, being a fool. All to try and feel better in meself. But nothing can suffice my thirst no more, I’m finished. All the drugs and drink in the world ain’t gonna make me happy no more. Nothing makes me happy anymore because I have gone past the point of happiness. There is no returning for me anymore. I am finished (Fury later tweeted that he is not retiring from boxing).”
Asked whether he had apprehensions about facing Klitschko again amidst the prospect of the Ukrainian gaining revenge, Fury added: “I’m 28 years old. I believe I’m the greatest out of everyone that’s ever lived. Klitschko got played with the first time. He didn’t even win a round. He lost every round, he couldn’t even land a punch. Why would I need to be scared of him, a 40-year-old man?
“Nothing can ever, ever mean more to my family, my history of people, than winning those titles (against him the first time). We are bare-knuckle champions, boxing champions — all that matters to us is fighting.”
Read the full Rolling Stone Magazine interview with Tyson Fury here
