Tyson Fury opens up on his fight with depression as he prepares for heavyweight showdown with Wladimir Klitschko

Behind the Batman mask, the feigned madness, the provocative rants, the threats and the insults lives a nice young man called Tyson Fury.

A fighting man when it comes to earning a crust but a family man at heart.

A religious man. A song and dance man.

A man who is about to earn millions boxing for the world heavyweight title but a man who will continue living as modestly as most in his travelling community.

Small house. Old car. 

Tyson Fury poses for photographs before jetting off from Manchester airport to Dusseldorf on Sunday

With Fury it is not only the punches which are designed to catch the eye. When required to promote a fight his actions are aimed at the headlines.

Now, when it comes to putting the record straight he is disarmingly frank.

No, he will not be quitting the prize-ring, at a mere 27, win or lose to perennial champion Wladimir Klitschko in a football stadium in Dusseldorf on Saturday.

No, he does not disregard Klitschko as a boring moron who can’t fight a lick.

No, if he does claim all those glittering belts it will not change his life.

No, whenever he does retire he will not be seeking an after-boxing life which would keep him in the public spotlight.

No, he is not burning with hatred for those different from himself. 

The Gypsy King, as he happily calls himself, is in truth a gentle giant.

Unlike his father John, who has recently completed a prison term for gouging out an assailant’s eye in a brawl, he has no criminal record and cannot recall being involved in a real fight outside the ring.

The quest for the real Tyson Fury has taken us to a simple room in a hotel built into one side of the Bolton Wanderers football ground, his retreat before flying to Germany.

He presents himself stripped to the waist.

Proud of a torso which has never been so taut and honed until this opportunity of a lifetime presented itself

Ready to bare all. As usual. 

English boxer was in high spirits as he prepares for heavyweight title bout with Wladimir Klitschko

Fury always senses instinctively the kind of interview a reporter is seeking.

Manic, scandalous, dark, outrageous, hysterical, political, comic, profound…….you name it, you’ve got it.

But how about the man himself?

Well, for a start Fury’s biggest enemy is not Klitschko, nor any heavyweight for that matter, not someone who tries to provoke him in the street or a bar, nor his critics.

It is depression.

The ring is his refuge from this psychiatric condition which runs in his family of travellers.

That roped scaffold is not only the platform for focussing all 6ft 9in in of his enormous being on boxing but also his stage for having fun as a natural-born showman. 

The 27-year-old Manchester-born English boxer braved the chilly conditions in a puffer jacket and wooly hat

‘I have no fear when it comes time to fight time,’ he says. ‘No nerves. No trepidation. No matter who is in the opposite corner. This is a place where I enjoy myself.

‘I have a responsibility to fight but also a duty to entertain. So I dance round the ring. I sing in the ring after I win. Why not?

‘You have to be a decent fighter but in this business that is not enough in itself. You don’t get noticed if you do nothing unusual.’

Most boxers put on their angry fight face in fight week. Fury insists that despite all his lurid stunts during the build-up he is composed as he biggest night of his life approaches and he warns us not to count on more outlandish behaviour in the final days and hours of the countdown: ‘I’m not in a bad place. I’m calm. I don’t see myself doing much at the final press conference and weigh-in. Maybe a few laughs.

‘The tickets are sold and the Sky pay-per-view buys are going well. I’m not wanting to burn up much more energy now. I’m just looking forward to the fight.’

No more Mister Bad Guy? 

Fury and Klitschko were scheduled to go head-to-head on October 24 but champion pulled out with calf injury

He is not even worried about the outcome: ‘I am confident. I believe I am the best in the world. I think I can end the Klitschko reign over heavyweight boxing. Although there would be no point getting on the plane if I didn’t, would there?’

‘But I am a fatalist. I absolutely know that if I am meant to win, I will win. If I am meant to lose, I will lose.

‘Beating Klitschko would be a tremendous achievement in itself. But becoming world champion would not change my life.’

Klitschko is the heavy favourite to keep his WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring magazine titles but Fury says: ‘Even if that’s right you don’t have to better than someone to beat them. Manchester United were the best team but Middlesbrough knocked them out of the League Cup. I am a fighter who can adapt, who always finds a way to win.’

This is Fury in his true metier. This is why he will not hang up the gloves until age catches up with him, even if Klitschko were to do that on November 28.

‘It’s when I am fat not fit that I get depressed,’ says this man who has ballooned up to more than 25 stones before previous fights - seven stones above his optimum boxing weight - and has at times come into the ring with surplus poundage about his belly.

The 27-year-old proudly shows of his taut torso (left) and with Sportsmail's Jeff Powell (right)

‘That’s when I hate myself. That’s why, no matter what I may have said before, I will box again after this.

‘If I win this big fight there will be more big fights for me. Like Deontay Wilder for that WBC belt to unify every last one of the world titles.

‘If I lose there will be fights at home. Like Anthony Joshua soon as he’s ready. I will keep fighting because I have to stay in shape.’

But not for the money.

Fury has matured to the point where he is paring down to the simple lifestyle which he knows is best for his frame of mind and for his wife and children.

‘After Dusseldorf I should have enough to look after us all for life,’ he says. ‘Not because it will be a lot for a lifetime but because it will be enough for our needs.

‘We have sold the big house and moved into a smaller home. I owned a Rolls Royce Phantom but I sold that too. Instead I paid £2,000 for a 15-year-old Mercedes S-Class which caught my eye on-line because of its old-fashioned half-wooden steering wheel. But all I really need is a car big enough for me to fit this big body into.

‘I used to love leading the flash life, like most red-blooded young men. No longer. I’m not interested in material possessions. Not any more. They mean nothing.’ 

Fury stunned Klitschko by arriving for press conference in September in a Batman costume

Fury does not live the gypsy cliché of a caravan as a home but it would not bother him if he did.

Once, before a previous fight, I visited him at his camp in the woods on the Belgium-Holland border. Peter Fury, his uncle as well as trainer, his sparring partners and the rest of the team occupied a large, traditional wooden house.

Tyson, his wife Paris, daughter Venezuela and his son Prince were shacked up in a caravan on the edge of the clearing. Very happily.

It has been suggested that he might one day run for Parliament as an independent MP but he says: ‘While it would be nice to think about helping people in need I won’t do anything which involves stress.

‘Once I stop fighting I will lead a quiet family life. It has to be stress-free because stress is a big part of depression and that’s one reason why I have simplified my life.

‘I own my house. I have no debts. I no longer blow money on shopping therapy. That’s out of my system.

‘Having a million pounds in later life would not make me any happier than a fiver in my pocket. All we need is enough to live on. I don’t need money to be content. Why does anyone need to spend a fortune on anything. Toilet paper is just toilet paper.

‘If I do have to find a few quid I can turn my hand to anything. You know. Odd jobs. Decorating. Whatever comes along. It wouldn’t worry me.

‘Whatever happens I won’t end up one of those boxers whose 20-room mansion gets repossessed and suddenly discovers his friends were just hangers-on who were sucking him dry.’

Fury has been inviting members of the public to join him on his daily training runs at Morecombe Bay

Fury has come under fire for voicing some heavyweight opinions about homosexuals, abortions and paedophilia buthe says: ‘I was simply quoting from the Bible. I am a Christian and I follow the teachings of the Lord.’

Thus speaks a devout man, one who would have named his son Jesus had his wife not dissuaded him.

Then there is Klitsckho, the gentleman champion he has publicly mocked.

What does Fury really think of the younger of the two Ukrainian brothers who have dominated heavyweight boxing for more than a decade?

‘What’s not to admire,’ he answers rhetorically. ‘He’s held almost all the world titles seems like forever. He’s fought everyone out there, including me shortly. He has his style but he’s extremely good at what he does.

‘After he got knocked out a couple of times all those years back he brought in Manny Steward , a great trainer who did a great job teaching him how to defend himself properly, and he hasn’t lost for 11 years.

‘He’s such a great athlete that I will be still be facing the best Wladimir Klitschko even at his age (39).

‘I don’t know him as a person but the proof is in the pudding. He’s clean cut. He’s a great ambassador for our sport. To be honest, he is an inspiration to all men.

‘Unlike David Haye, when he pulled out of our fight twice and cost me a year of my career and is rotten, when Klitschko postponed with his injury to be honest I had no anger. I just accepted it and kept on training. I knew he would turn up this week.

‘He is more to be admired than disrespected. The proof is in the pudding. He is still the best. At the moment. 

Klitschko (left) is the heavy favourite to keep his WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring magazine titles

‘Until we fight….and I do think I rattled him with that Batman stunt at the London press conference. He does like to be in control and he wasn’t comfortable that it became the Tyson Fury show.’

But what if fate does decree that Klitschko is to win.?

Fury says: ‘If I am destined to lose what would really matter is that I don’t do so in a bad way, by not doing my absolute best, by making excuses afterwards. I am undefeated. I’ve forced my way to the pinnacle of what I do best. If I’m not ready now then I never will be.

‘So providing I give everything in the ring, then win or lose boxing life will go on.’

So too, he insists, will the serious fitness regime to which he is now dedicated.

Fury expects to spring into the ring weighing about 18.5 stone and carrying less than ten per cent body fat. But he vows that this rejection of the old binge-and-bust habit will continue after this fight, beyond his ring career. 

Vitali Klitschko sparred with his brother Wladimir in the ring ahead of the title fight in Dusseldorf

He says: ‘From now on I will have to train every day for the rest of my life. Because it is being over-weight which makes me unhappy with myself.’

It is wise uncle Peter who has done much to save Fury from himself and he takes issue with his nephew on only this one point: ‘Winning the world heavyweight title definitely will change his life. Not in the way everyone might think but for the better, for the good of his life.

‘Win this one and there will be a string of big title fights to keep him boxing every three or four months and constantly in training. He’s only happy when he’s fighting so being world champion will be the antidote for his depression.’

And for Tyson Fury, that would be the most important victory of all.