A Tyson Fury super-fan camped out overnight in order to join the boxing star on his morning run.
Schoolboy Presley Pennington, 14, was driven 50 miles to Morecambe by his parents in the hope of spotting the heavyweight champion at the crack of dawn. Presley slept in his parents' campervan before bumping into Fury, who is preparing for a potential fight with Anthony Joshua, as he jogged along the seafront at 6am the following day.
As he left the van, Presley woke up his dad, Arron, who said: "I thought he was bloody mad as I didn’t think he was going to do it. He was in the tent above the campervan and I said, 'What are you doing?'. He said, 'I’m going for a run with Tyson Fury', but I just said, 'You’re mad' and shut the window."
After running to meet Fury during the heavyweight's run, Presley was greeted by the heavyweight champion who urged him to run faster with him. Presley, from Burnley, later posted pictures of himself with Fury on social media as well as a video in which he can be heard shouting: "With Tyson on a run."
Fury had already made time for the young schoolboy the day before when he gifted him a signed hat when he bumped into him at a local supermarket. Presley revealed he has read the champion's books and is inspired by the 34-year-old's journey back to the top of the world after suffering with mental health issues.
The teenager said later: "I got up and ready for 6am, and we saw him on the run, and he remembered me. I only ran a little way with him, but the adrenaline kept me going! They say don’t meet your heroes but he has such a good personality. I have two books on him and the reason he inspires me is that he was struggling, he had bad mental health problems and wanted to crash into a wall. Then he thought of his kids, started training and became the heavyweight champion of the world.
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“I admire that he turned his life around so quickly. I saw on Instagram that he runs down the seafront in Morecambe most days for his well-being. I said to my grandma, ‘I want to meet Tyson.' We have a caravan in Morecambe, so we decided to try and make it happen! The weird thing is the day before, when we got to Morecambe, I saw Tyson in his car near Sainsbury’s out the blue and he shook my hand. I got a picture and he gave me a hat which he signed."
Presley was delighted to have met the undefeated star and predicted the Morecambe native will defeat Joshua if they meet on December 3 in Cardiff. “Tyson will absolutely smash him," he continued. "He is a warrior. I would bet £2million on Tyson winning if I could, I am that confident!”
