Boxing: fears of Tyson Fury’s bipolar disorder increase, towards bout with Francis Ngannou
There are fears Tyson Fury’s bipolar disorder is resuming. Some think it is because of the videos showing the man he claimed he was named after, Mike Tyson, training Fury’s future opponent, Francis Ngannou for a boxing contest with Tyson Fury. According to Tyson Fury, ‘it’s sad.’
Heavyweight king, Tyson Fury came to the known lowest days of his life after winning Wladimir Klitshchko in 2015. He fell deeply into alcoholism and the use of cocaine, tormented by a problem psychiatrists call bipolar disorder.
This problem brings sudden, steep or high mood swings, making someone very sad at one moment, and changing the other moment.
‘Anxiety started to come heavily, ‘ Fury explained in the past. ‘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 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.’
In those days, a heavyweight contemporary, Deontay Wilder whom Fury would later come back to knock out in a match made a video that changed Fury’s life. Tyson Fury still had grudges at him for making that video.
‘I look at Deontay Wilder,’ Fury once said. ‘I don’t see some superhero, I just see a man with a pair of boxing gloves on, another bare bum in the shower.’
But what was in the video? According to Tyson Fury, he ‘Saw this little video he made and he said “Tyson Fury is finally finished, we’ll never see him again” and that was the day I got my running shoes back out. I started a run but I ended up walking because I couldn’t run 100 yards, I was that fat. I trained myself back nice and steady, we had a fairytale story.’
A London Psychiatrist in the person of Benji Waterstones made an example with Tyson Fury after his recovery, saying that men usually hid their sufferings. Tyson Fury once tried to commit suicide by in his car, but thoughts about his family changed his mind.
According to Waterstones, ‘Fury’s frankness is redefining outdated ideas of masculinity and what it means to be a ‘strong’ man. He shows you can compete to be the heavyweight champion of the world and be vocal about your mental health struggles, which is especially powerful in a testosterone-fuelled sport like boxing.’
A trainer of Fury’s said he thinks caused the suicidal tendencies back in those gloomy years.
‘Personally I don’t believe he’s had drug issues going back over six months,’ said trainer and uncle, Peter Fury. ‘If he’s done something it’s been recent. I don’t think he’s got a drug addiction at all. Whatever he’s taken will be a result of the depression.
‘The way he’s been received since he won the world title, to him, in his mind, he wasn’t recognised in anywhere near the way he should have been. It’s a combination of all of this that put him into depression. He just wants some space totally away from boxing, which is understandable.’
Now there are fears the bipolar disorder is returning because Mike Tyson, arguably his idol, whom he said his father named him after, is training a man to dethrone him. Tyson fury sounded really sad.
‘I think that it’s sad, actually,’ he said. ‘The man that I am named after, a legend, has to go against me and then come out as a loser, having lost to a man who was named after him. I think that it’s sad and I think that he should be in my corner, not the opposing corner, but business is business and I understand that it’s strictly business.
‘No matter what he teaches this fella [Ngannou], no matter how much boxing training he does, everyone has got a plan until they get punched in the face and I’m not sure who said that, but that is true. They’ve all got a plan until they get smacked in the mouth.’
Words from his father concerning how the heavyweight king is training for the bout with Ngannou put many people in doubt about his mental state, coupled with the fact that his weight seems to have started increasing like in the past. It could destroy Tyson Fury if he lost this fight.
This throws more light on what possibly keeps Fury going. He has spoken a lot about not giving up. Maybe fear keeps him going; it could also be Deontay Wilder’s timely video.