Fury heads to hills for Parker fight
Wood chopping, mountain climbing and endurance swims feature as Hughie Fury immerses himself in an ‘‘old school’’ training camp in preparation for his world title fight against New Zealand’s WBO champion Joseph Parker.
Fury has literally headed to the hills to prepare for their September 23 clash in Manchester, immersing himself in an an outdoors lifestyle at Windermere in Britain’s famous Lake District.
Living out of a caravan, the 22-year-old is reportedly pushing himself to new limits with his fitness efforts to complement his boxing work in a local gym.
He says he’s taking a lead from greats like Muhammad Ali in his bid to win a world title.
‘‘We’ve come up here just to do runs in the past and we’ve always said that this would be a fantastic place to set up a training camp and what better time than now for the world title fight against Parker,’’ Fury, dressed in army fatigues, told Boxingscene.com. ‘‘This is absolutely perfect for me, I love the outdoors and the fresh air and the feeling of getting back-to-basics is getting the very best out of me. The greats of boxing like Ali, Dempsey and Louis all did it this way. In modern times we’ve all gone scientific with boxing training, but there’s a lot to be said about training the old way and I feel fitter and stronger than ever before.
‘‘I’m training at altitude with my some of the mountain runs leaving my lungs burning. I’m pulling tyres attached to my back on uphill sprints, free climbing up the side of mountains that leave my arms and fingers burning and then I’m going for endurance swims and sprints in the freezing lakes.’’
He says there’s no better feeling than swinging an axe for a full body workout.
‘‘The log chopping ... it used to be common place for boxers to do this in the past, but it seems to have died out with some boxers going all body beautiful with weights in the gym.
‘‘It strengthens every muscle in your body from your hamstrings, calves, quads and gluts to your abs, lats, traps, deltoids and pecs while working my cardiovascular endurance.’’
There’s even a touch of Colin Meads to his preparations as photos show him carrying sheep.
Fury, undefeated through 20 fights though inactive since April last year, has vowed to ‘‘smash Parker to bits and tear the world title away from him’’.
Parker hasn’t lost a fight in 23 professional appearances, and is hungry for action, having had just the one defence of his title since winning the belt last December.
It’s been a rare period of inactivity for the normally busy Parker. He has used the time to refresh his body and is now back in camp in Las Vegas.