The father of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury 33-0-1 (24) has continued his one-sided beef with his son’s trainer SugarHill Steward.
John Fury took issue with comments made earlier this by Steward that the champion wasn’t training when a proposed date of April 29 loomed large for a potential showdown with WBC, WBO and IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk 20-0 (13).
Steward was in England helping Lawrence Okolie prepare for his WBO cruiserweight title defence against David Light in March when iFL TV asked him if Fury was also training with him.
“Tyson was in the gym with us, but I didn’t train Tyson,” he said. “We didn’t do pads. We didn’t do anything like with Usyk. I’m training Lawrence.”
Now, all these months later, Fury Sr will still not let it go despite the Usyk bout falling by the wayside.
Fury Sr is again publiclly calling on his son to sack Steward as coach.
“If a man turns on you they’ve got to go, haven’t they? Going back to SugarHill about him saying that he wasn’t training Tyson, that was a lie. He had no need to say that, I’m waiting to see him to his face to tell him it’s a lie,” John Fury told Mirror Fighting.
“It will probably cause problems but I don’t care what it causes, he’s getting told off me one way or the other.
“It’s in his best interest to avoid me because I won’t have them snakes near me. There’s a world full of them, be straight. He was living in Tyson’s house. Where was he coming from with that bullshit?
“I stand by what I say, he’s down the road as far as I’m concerned but it’s not my call, if [Tyson] had any sense he would get rid of him.
“A pigeon could train Tyson he’s that good, honestly. Give him a drink of water, wash his gumshield out and let him go. All of those expensive trainers are not needed.
“Until he made that comment, I couldn’t sing his praises high enough. Tyson got on with him and we thought he was a family friend, but to me that was just terrible what he did.”
In a separate interview, Fury Sr defended his son’s decision to face former UFC heavyweight champion and boxing debutant Francis Ngannou on October 28 in Saudi Arabia.
“Well, [Tyson has] beat everybody out there. He’s the best in the world. And I think people are just sore because there’s a lot of green-eyed monsters about, and most of it is jealousy, you know because anybody with a brain will know it’s a good business move, it’s a good payday,” he told Express Sport.
“You know, I think the people make comments are people who are irrelevant anyway. I know fans are what we want, but what can he do? What can he do? No one wants to fight the kid. So this opportunity presented itself. He took it with both hands, and why not? And there’s only the great country of Saudi to put these fights on now because they’re blowing everything out of the water.
“The rest of the world can’t compete with Saudi Arabia. Not a chance. So people today are making comments about things they don’t really understand. Muhammad Ali did the same thing when he was lineal champion. What’s he doing wrong? He can’t get a fight, there’s no mandatories. So what does he do? Sits on his arms to please the public? I don’t think he’s going to do that. That’s why it’s called professional boxing. It’s about money and business. That’s it. Good luck to him. There’s no more you can say.”
