FRESH MEAT TO FIGHT MACHINE

Steward didn’t rate Fury on first day at Kronk but soon he was one of Sugarhill’s gang

FRESH MEAT.

That’s what Sugarhill Steward thought when Tyson Fury first walked into the fabled Kronk gym in Detroit 10 years ago.

Yet within days, the Brit, whose big personality was matched only by his talent, had beaten up everyone in sparring and won the respect of even the most grizzled veterans in the gym.

Fury arrived in June 2010, aged 21, at the invitation of the Kronk’s legendary trainer Manny Steward, having just defeated John Mcdermott again to reclaim the English heavyweight title and extend his record to 11-0.

Sugarhill was assisting his uncle Manny back then and will never forget his first sight of the undefeated lineal heavyweight world champion.

“I remember this tall guy, with a head full of dark hair, like a lion’s mane, walking into the gym and all I heard was ‘fresh meat’,” he said.

“Someone in the gym always said ‘fresh meat’ when someone new came in and Tyson Fury was fresh meat when he walked into the Kronk.

“But that thought didn’t last long because he was the biggest guy in the gym.

“He would have been chewed up and spat out if he hadn’t been good enough, but, boy, was he good enough!”

Sugarhill is just as impressed after training Fury for the last seven months ahead of his rematch with Deontay Wilder on Saturday.

“I rate Tyson Fury right up there,” he said. “There are things he’s getting used to but I see a very big future for Tyson Fury as one of the greats in boxing.”

Fury’s cousin, former WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee, was training with Steward in 2010 and the pair impressed the Kronk’s black fighters and trainers. Lee (below) says that, as travellers, they can empathise with black people because they have also suffered prejudice and discrimination.

“We weren’t just white guys, we were two gypsies,” said the Irishman. “We relate a lot to black people because there are a lot of similarities in terms of the discrimination and prejudice we’ve both suffered.

“There’s a chip on your shoulder, you want to prove yourself. That’s where it comes from, from that discrimination.”

Fury made a huge impression during his month with Steward and the man who helped shape the careers of many world champions, including Lennox Lewis, Tommy Hearns and Wladimir

Klitschko, bought an extra large bed for him in his house. He also gave Fury a pair of white boots, which he wore when he dethroned Klitschko in Düsseldorf in 2015 to become world champion ( far left). There are photos of Fury on the walls of the Kronk gym from that time and Lee says he also made a big impression outside the ring in the home of Motown for his singing ability.

“We went to a place called Bert’s Warehouse,” said Lee. “It’s a Motown venue. Martha Reeves would be in there regularly and all these old members of The Temptations and The Four Tops. They would come in and do a song or two. “Tyson walked straight in, headed to the stage, grabbed the mic and started singing. He had people clapping and they loved him.

“He really took the city by storm. They’d never seen anything like that before, a big, tall, charismatic, white guy, who was good-looking.

“They loved him there because of his personality, but also because of how he fights. He immediately got the respect of all the people in the gym and, after a few days, there were no heavyweights left, he had cleared out the Kronk gym. I think that was a first. He took to the city as well. They still talk about him. There are photographs of him on the walls of the Kronk gym. They still follow him and consider him one of their own.

“Now it’s come full circle and he will be fighting for Manny and everyone else at the Kronk gym against Deontay Wilder.”