Tyson Fury’s trainer SugarHill Steward arrives in UK to begin training

By Boxing News - 03/16/2023 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury’s trainer SugarHill Steward has reportedly arrived in the UK to begin training him for his still-announced April 29th fight against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.

The Fury-Usyk fight still hasn’t been made official for April 29th, so it might not matter that SugarHill has supposedly arrived in the UK. There’s still no word that the contract has been signed for the fight.

A photo of a clean-shaven, younger, and surprisingly thin-looking Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs), showing him with SugarHill, was posted by talkSPORT’s Michael Benson, but it’s unclear if this is an old picture.

As of two days ago, Fury was bearded, flabby-looking, and less well preserved-looking than the photo posted today.

It looks like 34-year-old Fury has discovered the Fountain of Youth to knock five years off his age, which he might need to defeat the talented IBF, WBA & WBO champion Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs), who is more athletic, conditioned and capable. Fury has taken a swim in the fountain of youth and resembles the fighter he was years ago.

With the way Fury has boasted about himself, he hardly needs a trainer to beat the “middleweight” Usyk, does he? The way that Fury has been degrading the former undisputed cruiserweight and 2012 Olympic gold medalist, he should be able to defeat him without needing a coach like SugarHill.

Hopefully, this isn’t theatrics on Fury’s part to give the appearance that he’s training with SugarHill now. There’s only a little over a month to go for the fight, and that’s not enough time to prepare for a fighter like Usyk, who is completely different from anybody Fury has fought before.

If all SugarHill has to offer WBC heavyweight champion Fury for this fight is more of the ‘punch, hold & leaning’ stuff we’ve seen in his last three fights, Tyson is wasting his time.

That tired one-dimensional John Ruiz-esque approach won’t work against a well-schooled mover like Usyk. Unfortunately, Fury hasn’t shown any other changes to his game since SugarHill took over as his trainer in 2020.

SugarHill is a Kronk gym-trained coach, but the only visible change for Fury since teaming up with him is he uses a lot of clinching and roughhouse tactics.

Go back and watch Fury’s second fight with Deeontay Wilder and count the rabbit punches and holding & hitting that he did in that contest, all without being penalized or disqualified by the referee.