Has Tyson Fury Made a Mistake with Trainer Change?

Tyson Fury is currently getting ready for his much-anticipated rematch with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas on February 22nd. When the pair met in Los Angeles back in 2018, the bout ended in a controversial draw and Fury has since parted company with his trainer, Ben Davison, which was a mistake according to the Bronze Bomber.

The Gypsy King is confident he is going to be the first boxer to knock out the heavy-hitting Wilder, even though Fury is at his best when he carries out his cautious style of boxing that saw him beat Wladimir Klitschko and draw with the 33-year-old.

“We haven’t seen his power displayed like he’s talking about,” said Wilder.

“It hasn’t been continuous, like mine. I think he has pillows as fists. That’s what I felt in our last fight.

“With the strategies that he’s talking about, I don’t really know how to take it. I don’t know if he’s trying to throw me off my game by saying he’s going to knock me out.

“When you fight someone like me, it’s a mistake to tinker around with your training camp. I’m unpredictable in that ring.

“When you have too many opinions and too many people who think they have the remedy, it usually backfires.”

Despite Wilder’s prediction of Fury ‘making a mistake by tinkering’ with his coaching team, the Briton is still favored in the Wilder vs Fury betting odds.

The Gypsy King had worked with Davison since 2017 before the pair split in December. The 27-year-old oversaw Fury’s dramatic weight loss and his draw with Wilder, so why did the pair split?

Well, following the Gypsy King’s victory over Otto Wallin in Vegas last September, Fury’s father, John, criticised the 31-year-old’s trainer saying him and his team “should be gone,” adding his son looked as “weak as a kitten.”

Two months later the split was confirmed: “Tyson and myself had to both make decisions for our careers, which resulted in our working relationship coming to an end,” the English trainer wrote in a tweet, before concluding that the duo will “remain friends and he will SMASH the DOSSER!!”

The Gypsy King has since started working with Javan ‘SugarHill’ Steward, who is the nephew of legendary trainer Emanuel ‘Manny’ Steward. Manny coached heavyweight icons such as Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, and Wladimir Klitschko before passing away in 2012. ‘SugarHill’ helped out some of Manny’s former fighters, while also training several himself, including Anthony Dirrell and Charles Martin.

Fury’s cousin and former middleweight champion Andy Lee is also part of the Briton’s new setup and believes the Gypsy King is now packing a better punch than when he first met Wilder.

“I got a call from Tyson and he just said he was thinking of bringing someone else into the camp to help,” Lee said.

“We talked about several coaches we both knew. I suggested SugarHill.

“He said: ‘I was thinking of him.’ They had worked together a bit when Tyson visited Detroit and when we visited the Klitschko camp in Austria.

“Emmanuel Steward would be busy with Wladimir, so SugarHill would train me and Tyson. I think it’s an excellent match. SugarHill emphasizes a lot on balance and being strong with the jab.

“I think Tyson, for the Wilder fight, will have to do what he does – feint, move, be tricky, unpredictable – but also have a little more authority in his punches.

“He hurt Wilder several times first time around. With SugarHill in the corner, if he has him hurt again, I think you will see Tyson going for the finish.”

It looked as though Fury did enough to strip Wilder of the WBC world title when they met in Los Angeles before a controversial draw was announced but this time the 31-year-old says he will floor the Alabama native inside two rounds.

“How do you beat a massive puncher? You have to back him up. He gets massive leverage in those long arms while coming forward. I have to put him on the back foot and make him absorb some of my power,” he said.

“We’re giant heavyweights. I’ve had 20 knockouts, so I’m very capable of knocking people out. When you underestimate someone else’s power, you usually end up unstuck.

“Whether I’m a great puncher or not, I don’t believe anybody else can match me with heart and determination.”

Going at Wilder – who boasts 41 of his 42 professional victories via knockout – at his own game is undoubtedly going to be a risk for Fury and, should it go wrong, what’s next for the Gypsy King?