“It’s well documented that he’s bipolar,” Frank Warren says of Tyson Fury as the promoter and the WBC world heavyweight champion hunker down for the last few days of preparation before the giant boxer steps into the ring in Riyadh on Saturday night. Fury faces the steely and canny Oleksandr Usyk, who holds the IBF, WBA and WBO titles, in the first undisputed world heavyweight championship bout this century.
Usyk fights against the troubling backdrop of war in his country, as the Russian onslaught against Ukraine grinds on, but Warren offers a clear reminder that Fury wages a daily battle inside his own mind. “I get pissed off when people keep talking about how he contradicts himself. He does that because he’s bipolar. I find it offensive as it feels like there is a little campaign against Tyson Fury.
“He’s one of the best boxers we’ve had and done everything asked of him, overcoming demons that most people would never have got out of, let alone go and fight. He was a drug addict and a boozer and he’s come out of it and won the title, gone in people’s back yards and done it.”
Warren is 72 and, as a promoter for 44 years, he has seen everything in this dark old business. But even he sounds in thrall to the tumultuous story of Tyson Fury. “On his day there’s nobody like him. Whether you love him or hate him, Tyson leaves everything in the ring. He gets hit on the chin and gets up off the floor. He’s got this will to win and a drive within him. In some ways being bipolar is part of that. It propels him to not give up.”
In late 2018, six months after Warren had helped him return to boxing after two and a half years out of the ring, Fury said: “I was a fat pig at nearly 28st, drinking and taking drugs on a daily basis. Suffering with depression up to the point of suicide, anxiety attacks, everything. You couldn’t get any lower.”
Fury said those jolting words just before he fought a ferocious Deontay Wilder in an attempt to win the WBC title for the first time. He had won the three other major belts on an unforgettable night in November 2015 when he shocked so many by outclassing Wladimir Klitschko with a majestic performance in Germany. The next day, Fury’s spiral began with shuddering force and he did not fight again until June 2018. But his resurrection felt complete after he fought Wilder.
He dazzled Wilder throughout, but Fury still had to rise twice from the canvas, the second time from a blow that appeared to have rendered him briefly unconscious in the last round. An extraordinary contest ended with Fury making Wilder sag and seem close to being knocked out himself. Fury should have won but wayward scoring produced an unfair draw.
Fury then stopped Wilder twice, the final bout in their trilogy producing one of the greatest contests in heavyweight history. He now faces Usyk who is the only heavyweight who can claim to be as skilled and unconventional as Fury.
“They’re both in their prime and it’s a tremendous fight,” Warren says. “Usyk has done everything as an Olympian [winning gold at London 2012], been the best cruiserweight of his generation and a heavyweight for over four years. Tyson is a big guy [at 6ft 9in] but so is AJ [Anthony Joshua]. Usyk outjabbed him from the outside [and beat Joshua clearly in 2021 and 2022].”
Warren’s respect for Usyk is obvious and he describes the Ukrainian as “a tough, proud guy and he’s done it all on the road, for obvious reasons. But he’s now in with Tyson, a guy who is not carved out of marble, who is a bit flabby. But nobody has more natural stamina or more natural boxing ability than Tyson. He’s got a fantastic boxing brain and his speed is unbelievable for a guy that big. He’s a phenomenon.”
Warren is convinced Fury “will prove that he is the best heavyweight of his generation by far” as he controls “the centre of the ring. He’s got a superb jab and he will just keep Usyk on the back foot and break him down.” The promoter’s certainty surges from his sense that, mentally, “Tyson’s in a real good place.”
From Warren’s perspective, the lowest moments came soon after he had first tried to become Fury’s promoter in 2016. “When Tyson went off the rails we were trying to do the Klitschko rematch. He missed the press conference. I wasn’t aware of what was going on but then I heard about [Fury’s mental anguish]. Imagine what his family and his wife went through.”
When he and Warren met again in 2018, to discuss his possible comeback, Fury was still a bloated wreck. Did the promoter have any doubts about working with him? “No. I could see there was still a spark in him. He wanted it and he was determined. And so it turned out.”
Warren points out, for all Fury’s flaws, “we get a lot of mail for him sent to us. We open it before we forward it and you won’t believe how many people he has inspired. People identify with him. He has been an inspiration and has had three No 1 books and a Netflix series. Somebody must like him.”
Fury contains his problems now because, Warren says, “he has a regime in his life. He’s in the gym always but he needs a goal [to steady himself]. It will be interesting when he retires.”
Warren acknowledges that, in retirement, “Frank Bruno went off the rails, Joe Calzaghe went off the rails. Loads of fighters have done that, footballers like [Paul] Merson and other sportsmen too. It’s tough.” Does Warren worry about Fury’s future mental health in retirement? “No, I don’t. He’s got lots of support.”
There is grand talk from Fury that, despite being 35, he may fight 10 further bouts. “He’s got that mentality where he wants to go on and on but he’s got people around him who will ensure that doesn’t happen,” Warren says.
“The first person to tell him will be me. I’m only all right with anyone boxing if they are fit enough and well enough. He’s been caught with a few shots over the last few fights and if he starts shipping a lot of punishment then what is the need? He’s one of the wealthiest British sportsmen now, so he doesn’t need to do that.”
Should Fury prevail on Saturday, for Warren “it would be the best night in boxing because of where he has come from. Think of the size of him, how hard he has worked [to get well again]. To play a part in making that happen has just been brilliant. He has been a breath of fresh air for British boxing and he’s the most approachable champion in the world.”
Fury is also a man apart, still plagued by hidden demons and doubts, a world champion like no other. But Warren shakes his head in admiration as he considers Fury’s achievements since his return to the ring. “He has done bloody brilliantly. He has turned his life around in a big way.”
