World heavyweight boxing contender Tyson Fury says the sport has a "big problem" with drugs and has called for doping to be legalized.

Fury, 27, from Manchester, will fight for the WBA, IBF, IBO and WBO world titles against Wladimir Klitschko in Germany on Saturday.

"Boxing has got a big problem with drugs. But it doesn't bother me because at the end of the day it's about determination over drugs."

Fury believes the only way to make things "fully fair" is to legalize doping in sport.

"I think being in a democratic world means we have to be open to different things," he said. "Why don't they make drugs totally legal in sports and then it would be fully fair?" he said.

"You can't tell me that 99 percent of these sportspeople ain't taking drugs if they've got bodies like Greek gods."

However, he conceded there were health risks.

"If a man wants to pump himself full of drugs it's only shortening his life isn't it? When you're pumping yourself full of drugs it's putting pressure on your heart, your liver, your lungs, your kidneys.

"You're on a one-way ticket to a heart attack so that's why you see a lot of these bodybuilders and weightlifters having heart attacks young because they're pumped up so much and the heart can't take the pressure."

In a statement, the British Boxing Board of Control said it was "committed in its fight against drug use in professional boxing".

Its general secretary, Robert Smith, told BBC Radio 5 live he did not agree there was a "major problem".

Fury is an outsider for the fight in Dusseldorf on Saturday. He is unbeaten in 24 bouts, but the Ukrainian has not been beaten for 11 years.