Heavyweight boxing champ Tyson Fury has revealed the secret of his success - fish fingers, chips and beans.
The self-styled Gypsy King says he tucks into a plate piled high with his favourite food before stepping into the ring. And the dad of six says he even orders the children’s favourite in high class restaurants.
The undefeated world champion, who has battled weight problems in the past, said: “My three non-negotiable behaviours, or three things that makes me high performance is fish fingers, chips and beans. It’s my death row meal and that’s what makes me high performance. I have it before every fight. It’s my favourite meal in the world.”
Speaking on the High Performance podcast on Monday, he said: “I was in America, in a big fancy restaurant in New York, and everyone was having lobsters and all this fancy truffle and whatever else - all these fancy fish things that I can’t even name.
And I don’t even like any of this like seafood and all that. I’m not a seafood person. She (the waitress) said ‘Well what can our chef make? Anything you want’.
“I said ‘Tell you what I’ll have - fish fingers, chips and beans’. And she said ‘Beans? Like green beans?’ I’m like ‘No - like breakfast beans’. And she said ‘What is this?’ - because they don’t have beans for breakfast in America. So I got a picture up and she’s like ‘Oh, like barbecue beans’ - because they have barbecue stuff. And I’m like ‘Yep, that’s what I want - fish fingers, not crisps, I want like chunky fries, and barbecue beans’.”
But his wife Paris does not share Tyson’s love for his pre-fight meal, admitting: “I’m not a fish finger fan.” Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester last year, she said he also insists on eating it when he returns home from his training camp, calling it his “go-to” meal, adding: “He likes it and that’s what he looks forward to.”
Tyson, 34, who usually tips the scales at 18 stone, had ballooned to 28 stone as he battled depression after following his 2015 world heavyweight victory over Wladimir Klitschko in Germany. In his book 'The Furious Method', published in 2020, he blamed booze and junk food for his dramatic weight gain.
He wrote: “Within a month of being crowned world heavyweight champ, I was an emotional wreck on my way to a heart attack, thanks to a diet of Class-A drugs, junk food and alcohol.”
Tyson continued: “I had my epiphany in a pub on Halloween night in 2017, hopelessly overweight and humiliated, wearing a skeleton outfit that was skin-tight and emphasised my full 28st. Looking around the pub at people half my age I felt like a disgrace, and I knew things had to change.”
And he added: “Being a fat, lazy bum with millions in the bank is no way to live, but being hungry, fit and really alive in the middle of life’s journey - now that’s a thing worth fighting for!”
Tyson, from Morecambe, Lancs, will step into the ring on December 3 to defend his WBC World Heavyweight crown against Derek Chisora at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium in an all-British clash.
