By Terence Dooley
Tyson Fury (26-0, 19 KOs) has the second fight of his long-awaited comeback at Windsor Park in Belfast on Saturday night in what could be a stepping stone to a showdown with WBC holder Deontay Wilder, and former IBF cruiserweight titlist Glenn McCrory believes that the British press needs to get behind and support the controversial former heavyweight Champion.
Fury lifted the titles by beating Wladimir Klitschko in Germany in November 2015 only to come home to a news storm following a series of comments that he made prior to and after winning the belts. This coupled with a fight against the UKAD and a battle with depression led to a near-three year layoff for the 30-year-old, but McCrory believes that the press had their knives out for the traveller from the moment he won the titles.
“Tyson is in a very, very good place now,” he said when speaking to David Kelly of the Belfast Telegraph. “I was with him eight months ago and he was really overweight but still had a great engine and he has got himself into terrific shape in such a short space of time.”
Fury’s first comeback win came against Sefer Seferi at the Manchester Arena in June, a fourth-round retirement victory, and he meets Francesco Pianeta live on BT Sports on Saturday night in another tool sharpener. However, former Sky pundit McCrory believes that Fury is already good to go should he net the Wilder fight.
“He's been there and done it, he has beaten the best Klitschko so it's all about getting into the right shape, getting focused and being mentally ready,” he added. “You can tell he is back to where he wants to be and when you're at that world level it is about getting sharp again because you're not going to teach him much more—there will be the odd little thing for different fighters but he's had a lifetime in boxing.
“The mental side is crucial and the biggest thing was for him to want it again, to get that desire again which I believe was taken away from him because of the treatment he suffered after winning the title.
“The treatment he received after winning was terrible, I've never seen a champion treated like that. He had just won the world heavyweight title against the top man in the division and it just seemed that people wanted to bring him down.”
Now, though, Fury is just minutes away from a chance at redemption, and McCrory has tabbed him to beat both Wilder and unified holder Anthony Joshua as long as he manages to maintain his mental and physical well-being.
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