John Fury, father of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, admits that he tried to persuade his son to step away from the first showdown with Deontay Wilder.
In December 2018, Fury was a massive underdog when he stepped in the ring with Wilder, who was the undefeated power punching WBC champ - and regarded as the most feared puncher in the sport.
Fury had only resumed his career six months earlier after a layoff of more than two years and he also shed a tremendous amount of weight.
Fury defied the odds by using his boxing skills to give Wilder fits in the contest.
Wilder dropped Fury in the ninth and appeared to knock him out cold in the twelfth. In a miracle, Fury was able to beat the count and finished the fight.
The end result was a controversial twelve round split draw.
"He said, 'Dad, these two are going to and from all day long," John Fury said to The Mirror. "'I'm going to step up to the plate and I'll fight Wilder'. I said, if you do that I won't speak to you for as long as I live because you will get hurt; you've just lost 10 stone in as many months, you're not really fit at all.
"I said leave it, you've had a couple of warm-up fights, you're not there yet. Your strength ain't there, you can't knock a hole in a wet paper bag, where's your sense?
"He said, 'Dad I'm a fighting man, if I get beat I get beat; I'm going to do what Joshua's frightened to do and step in the ring. If he beats me, he beats me, the best man will win'. It went from there and the rest is history; it was the best comeback of all time, who gets up in the twelfth round like that? He was out, out cold... divine intervention I tell you."
Fury dominated the February rematch with Wilder, and scored two knockdowns to stop the unbeaten man in the seventh to capture the WBC title.
A trilogy fight has been set down with a tentative date of December 19.