Tyson Fury should sack his trainer, SugarHill Steward – that’s according to his father, John, after witnessing the recent performance of Lawrence Okolie, who is also trained by the American.
Okolie lost his undefeated record and his world title in what was just his second fight under Stewards’ guidance, in a defeat to Chris Billam-Smith earlier this month.
Now, John Fury is convinced that the reputation of the American trainer is only so high as a result of his relationship with ‘The Gypsy King’, rather than his skills as a cornerman.
In an interview with Seconds Out, the 59-year-old said his son was easy to train, and that nobody can show him anything he doesn’t already know, before criticising Stewards’ career to date.
“It wasn’t rocket science what he needed to do to beat Deontay Wilder, SugarHill was in the right place at the right time and Tyson again, like the previous men before him, he’s made them all famous.
It’s not because of how good they are, he didn’t do much for Lawrence Okolie, did he? Where was his box of tricks with him? Awful.
If he was that good of a trainer, why did Emanuel Steward, his own blood-uncle, give Johnny Banks the head job? Why didn’t [Wladimir] Klitschko employ SugarHill, instead of Johnny Banks getting the top job? I’ve nothing against SugarHll at all, nothing, he is a man getting paid like everybody else. Another one feeding a living off of The Gypsy King. You’ll never get no straighter chat than [with] me.
Tyson, wind him up and let him go.”
This is the third time in as many months that the head of the Fury family has told his son to sack the American, however, the WBC champion is yet to comment on the matter.