Tyson Fury reveals battle with depression, drugs and alcohol in tell-all interview ahead of Deontay Wilder clash
Gypsy King appeared to have lost everything after taking over the heavyweight division in 2015 but he is back with a bang
TYSON FURY has revealed his drink and drug abuse got so bad he once popped out to the shops in Morecambe and woke up in New York.
The 30-year-old shocked the world when he beat Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 but celebrations were brief after the IBF stripped him of one of his belts just two weeks later.
Things turned even darker when news spread he had failed a drugs test before that Dusseldorf crowning and an ankle injury wrecked the rematch.
The Gypsy King then spiralled into a haze of alcohol and cocaine abuse before ballooning up to 28 stone and handing back his remaining belts to focus on his recovery.
In an incredible turnaround, he fights WBC boss Deontay Wilder on December 1, for the one strap he has never owned and he has admitted on American radio how bad his 924-day boxing absence got for him and his family.
He told The Breakfast Club: “I really don't know what had me depressed but I knew I was just spiralling out of control. The only thing I could think of to make it better and go away for a bit was getting drunk and that just led to problems after problems after problems.
“Can you imagine being married to Jack the lad, the heavyweight champion of the world, the person everybody is talking about and then it all goes wrong.
“He hits the drink, he's out every night until five in the morning, sometimes didn't come home for three days, I'd go to the shop and end up in New York, from Morecambe. I was way out of control.”
The 6ft 9in switch-hitter admitted very early on in his career that he suffered from depression but landing the WBA, IBF, WBO and Ring Magazine belts in Germany did nothing to help.
The proud Traveller had all the money and attention he could wish for but he seemed incapable of handling it and landed himself in hot water with a series of bizarre and controversial comments.
But Tyson Fury Mk II seems a more mature man and he explained how time with his family and letting off steam helped him suppress suicidal thoughts.
He said: “I needed some time off, I'd been boxing since 10, 11 years old up to 27 with no breaks. So I needed time to live a little and enjoy myself but it just went too far.
“Anxiety started to come heavily, I always suffered with depression, when I was on top of the world I became more and more and more depressed until it was like suicidal thoughts and stuff like that.
“I had everything - money, fame, glory, good looks. I had it all, everything a man would ever want but yet it didn't mean anything, I wanted to die on a daily basis.
“Material goods are only good for when things are going right in your life... you can have everything in the world and feel like s*** on a daily basis because no one can see inside the mind.
“I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, mental health has to be the biggest enemy I've ever, ever, ever fought with, more than any opponent.”
The showman in Fury has always courted attention but he revealed he was crippled with anxiety at the height of his fame.
When he was first struck down by an attack he thought he was dying from a heart attack or had been poisoned.
He said: “I thought I was dying, I thought I was having a heart attack, I rushed myself into A&E, I said: 'Look, I think I've been drugged, someone's trying to kill me, test me, I want a blood test right now, I'm having a heart attack, I think I've had a stroke’.