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‘Don’t be fooled he’s the hardest worker I’ve seen’ – Andy Lee praises Tyson Fury’s work ethic

Tyson Fury is the best trainer Andy Lee has seen.

The giant heavyweight was famed for blowing up between bouts and up and until recently wasn’t even known as a good trainer.

However, having seen up close and personal during his most recent camp, Limerick’s Lee was happy to reveal the WBC heavyweight champion of the world is the hardest worker he has seen in the gym.

The former middleweight world champ was an essential part of the former Irish Champion’s coaching team ahead of his massive rematch with Deontay Wilder and was more than impressed with what he had seen.

It’s a massive compliment coming from the former Emanuel Steward and Adam Booth trained fighter considering the gyms he has populated and fighters he has worked alongside.

Lee also revealed the colourful character is quite the boxing expert.

“He’s got an unbelievable wealth of knowledge. People don’t realize this about him but he’s like a boxing historian,” Fury said to RTE 2fm’s Game On

“He can tell you who fought who and how they won the fight back in 1950. He’s got an unbelievable brain for boxing and so a lot of the time within the Tyson camp when we were training, we would work in the gym.

“People see him and he’s a larger-than-life character but don’t be fooled. When he’s in the gym working, he’s the hardest worker I’ve seen and takes it very seriously.

“We would do that every day but also when we would come back from the gym, we would talk for hours about boxing, life, training sessions and how they went, what he felt worked and what he’s comfortable with.”

Lee, has progressed into coaching and helping guide the careers of talents Paddy Donovan and Jason Quigley and also discussed the transition from fighter to trainer.

“It’s a big transition and it’s a lot of work in a different way,” Lee added. “Obviously, when you’re fighting and training, that’s the work. But in terms of when I’m training the two lads and even with Tyson Fury, you’re constantly thinking about it.

“You do the session and you’re constantly analysing the session in your head and thinking about which ways they can improve and what I could have done differently to communicate to them. I’m quite fortunate in the sense that I’m still able to display the technique and sometimes you learn more from what you see than from what you’re told. So if there is something that I can see that they need to make an adjustment [on], I can easily get up in the ring and display it for them in a specific way.

“That’s something that has helped me in still being in touch with boxing. But as the fighters have progressed, so have I. I’m less than a year now coaching but you just draw on all your experience and constantly thinking about my career, the fights I had, my coaches, how they spoke to me, words they would use, things they taught me and just try to impart that in the best possible way.”

Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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