Tyson Fury scored a destructive victory over Derek Chisora earlier this month. But before he entered the ring, Fury got candid about his relationship with boxing.
“The Gypsy King” returned from depression in 2018 and has stayed loyal to the sport ever since. Fury now boasts a remarkable 33-0-1 record after scoring eight wins and one draw in the four years through his return.
As he prepared to trade blows with his friend Chisora at Tottenham Stadium, Fury sat down with Queensberry Promotions to lay it all on the line.
“My relationship with boxing? I am in a very good place with boxing at the moment,” he told the QP YouTube Channel.
“George Foreman said a long time ago, along with some other boxers, that it is difficult to run along the road at five in the morning when you’ve got your Versace slippers on and your silk PJs.
Boxing is a hobby for Tyson Fury
“I don’t find it that way. My attitude is that it’s easier for me to run along the road knowing that I’m financially secure and have done all I’ve needed to do.
“This is a hobby now rather than a business or sport. This is my hobby and what I love to do.
“I’ve been in love with boxing for such a long time, from being a little boy, and I am 34 now. I’m probably at the end of my career in the next few years.
“It has been a love-hate relationship, and it has been toxic at times, but when it is good, it is very good.
“So we are in that relationship. I don’t just abandon things. I try to make things work, which is where we are at the moment.
“I’ve wanted to leave a lot of times, but it always drags me back. It is like a massive drug and an addiction.
“I know it is an addiction. I am an addictive person. It is not my best friend. It is an addiction. But it is abusive because it abuses my body, mind, and soul when I come to this gym.
“But afterward, I feel it takes me to ecstasy. The rush is unbelievable. It gives me the biggest highs ever, but it also gives me the lowest lows as well.
“Boxing is more addictive than any drug ever. Ever. Because you can’t let it go.”
Outside the ring obligations
On signing a fly-on-the-wall documentary deal with NetFlix and releasing a single for charity, Fury said he made sure nothing interfered with his camp.
“I completed the book before I started training camp, so that was done,” reported Tyson. “I recorded the single before I started training. I’ve just been doing remote interviews here and there regarding these projects.
“I carved out Netflix for the full fight camp to concentrate on my opponent.
“SugarHill has been here and will have been for six or seven weeks by the time the fight comes around, I’ve had the nutritionist here for the full nine weeks, and I have been alone in Morecambe Bay.
“I can’t do any more than that. While I am in camp, I am in Spartan mode, and I can’t be around the family. I’ve got to have this fighting attitude to win big fights.”
He concluded: “You can fight six-rounders or against low-level opposition in eight-rounders and stuff, and you can fight them anywhere.
“When you are fighting twelve-round fights for the world heavyweight title and everything is on the line, you do have to take it very seriously.”
Fury will undoubtedly have the same mindset when he goes up against the Pound for Pound king Oleksandr Usyk in the first half of 2023.
