Tyson Fury is on the cusp of completing a comeback story worthy of any Hollywood film less than two weeks out from his world title challenge against WBC king Deontay Wilder on December 1.
The self-styled Gypsy King appeared to be on the road to greatness after dethroning 10-year reigning heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015, outboxing the veteran Ukrainian to secure an almost-unprecedented landslide decision on German soil.
In doing so, Fury was crowned the unified WBA, IBF, IBO, WBO and lineal champion – only the fifth Brit to have achieved heavyweight world title glory at the time.
Speaking after the fight, he said: "This is a dream come true. We worked so hard for this. I've done it.
“It's hard to come to foreign countries and get decisions. It just means so much to me to come here and get the decision."
But the joy was short-lived for Fury; it would be his last action in the ring for 924 days.
Having conquered the challenge of defeating one of boxing’s most dominant champions, Fury became disillusioned with the sport and without the challenge of competition, the Manchester man found himself battling mental health problems.
The 30-year-old turned to drink and drugs during a lengthy hiatus from boxing that lasted more than two years, swelling to 26-stone in weight.
Now back and rejuvenated under the charge of young trainer Ben Davison, Fury has found a new lease of life, shedding almost eight stone in miraculous style to get himself back fighting fit both physically and - most importantly - mentally.
Speaking to BTSport.com earlier this month, promoter Frank Warren, the man responsible for engineering next month’s surprise title shot against Wilder, claimed Fury had never been in better shape.
“Mentally he’s in a good place,” Warren said.
“He won titles in a bad position mentally. Now he’s in a great position and he’s got himself in great condition as you can see, he’s lost a lot of weight.”
To prepare for the challenge of KO king Wilder, Fury decamped for the hills of southern California, setting up base at the world famous Summit Gym in Big Bear – the location favoured by Gennady Golovkin and fellow British heavyweight Joe Joyce.
In recent weeks, Fury has also spent time at the iconic Wild Card gym in Los Angeles, even recruiting legendary cornerman Freddie Roach to join his team for the forthcoming fight.
British cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie was flown out to join Joyce and Italian fighter Guido Vianello as Fury’s principal sparring partners for the forthcoming fight – but during an exclusive chat with BTSport.com, the Gypsy King revealed his struggles to find someone to imitate the hard-hitting Bronze Bomber.
“There are no perfect guys to prepare for Wilder, just like there are no perfect guys to prepare for the Gypsy King. Anybody is anybody,” Fury said.
However, the 6ft 9ins star suggested he would be focusing on one area of his physical conditioning in particular to take advantage of his natural size advantage over 6ft 7ins Wilder.
“I’m going to be pushing rollers and trucks up hills to give myself strong legs because I believe you need strong legs in a heavyweight fight. I don’t know what Wilder with his legs but I know he’s got two noodle legs – and I’ll make a spaghetti hoop out of him after this fight," Fury said.
"Wilder hasn't always been this brash, colourful character we see today. Up until he had 30 fights he was quite shy and reserved. This is why no one knows him. Now he has a bit of swag about him, but it's not genuine, it's fake.
"He's snide, a fraud, and when he gets in there with the real deal on Saturday night he's going to know what it looks like. When you see a bad man, you know what one looks like. I look at him and I don't see a bad man, I see a pretender."
BT Sport Box Office HD is the only place to watch the year’s most unmissable heavyweight showdown as Tyson Fury goes head-to-head with Deontay Wilder at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, US.
