Tyson Fury was inspired to fight, and stop, Deontay Wilder - after the big puncher made statements about blasting out former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.

Fury's father named him after the retired heavyweight great.

After his shocker over Wladimir Klitschko in November of 2015, Fury gained a lot of weight as he fought depression and substance abuse issues.

Fury began training for his comeback in late 2017, and returned to the ring after a very long layoff in mid-2018.

He was fully focused on securing a fight with then WBC champion Deontay Wilder - which took place in December of 2018, and saw the contest end in a controversial twelve round split draw.

The rematch took place in February, with Fury capturing the WBC world title with a TKO win in seven.

Wilder has exercised an immediate rematch clause, which is going to force a trilogy fight before the end of the year.

"I started the regain mission to become heavyweight champion of the world again," Fury said to WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman.

"I phoned up my trainer and said I was ready to train now, I phoned up Frank Warren and said I was ready to make a comeback and he said, ‘yeah, we’ll power the comeback’. That day I got my sweatsuit on and I intended to jog one mile, just one, and I didn’t get half a mile without stopped. I stopped and I walked, and as I was walking I was looking on Instagram of some videos and I saw a video that Deontay Wilder had done and he said that he could knock out Mike Tyson in one round in his heyday.

"And I thought this is disrespectful because Mike Tyson is 50-odd years old, Deontay Wilder is a young champion in his era. And I thought you know what, for that one comment I’m going to come back and knock you out. And he also said some stuff about me as well, he’s fat, he’ll never make a comeback, he’s too far gone. So I actually owe Deontay Wilder for bringing me back and giving me more inspiration to return, as well as God, and I never stopped. From this day to that day I’ve never stopped training. I’ve trained every single day since November 1, 2017."