Frank Warren has spoken about how he made the decision to sign Tyson Fury when the fighter was at his lowest ebb.
The Queensberry boss is in the promotional corner of the current WBC heavyweight champion and has been since his comeback to the ring following a mental health hiatus of nearly three years.
Fury, who dethroned Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf, Germany back in 2015 to claim the WBA Super, IBO, IBF, WBO, Lineal and Ring Magazine titles, went off the rails in the aftermath of the seismic shock win at the Esprit Arena, having issues with UK Anti-Doping and the British Boxing Board of Control.
He announced in 2018 that he had signed a multi-fight deal with Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions and stated that he intended to fight at least three times before 2019, starting on June 9 at the Manchester Arena.
‘The Gypsy King’ was in a world title fight, against then-WBC champion Deontay Wilder, before the end of that year. He went on to have a trilogy with the Alabama native who returns from his second defeat at the hands of Fury when he faces Robert Helenius on October 15 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Now the aforementioned Warren has been discussing working with Fury on the People, Just People podcast with Dermot O’Leary.
“First of all, he won a world title. He beat Wladimir Klitschko, who was the best of his generation, in front of 50-odd-thousand people. He took him to school and boxed his head off.
“I got Tyson into the position to fight for the title and then it was done through another promoter. I didn’t think he’d win in Germany. I thought he would win if he did the fight in the UK.
“He beat Derek Chisora and he was so good that night that I fancied him from then on to beat Klitschko, but then he went off the rails.”
Warren took a punt on the 34-year-old when nobody else in the game would touch him as he looked to forge a path back to the upper echelons of the sport’s premier division.
“It was just dreadful. He was suicidal and I met with him. He was 11-stone overweight, I took him into the most surreal meeting at BT Sport and they were all very sceptical about getting behind him.
“Nobody wanted to know him and this was the most surreal thing. They [BT] had done deals for the Premier League, the Champions League and they didn’t know what was what.
“I talked them all round, he said what he had to say and the next minute, they were in the Tyson Fury business.”
Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) was last in action in April when he stopped mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium in London inside six rounds and is currently chasing down an all-British showdown with Anthony Joshua, who has accepted an offer of 60-40 for a clash before the end of the year.