Tyson Fury revealed he slept on a hospital floor for weeks as he opened up on the heart-wrenching near death of his daughter in the build-up to his third Deontay Wilder showdown.
The Gypsy King's sixth child Athena was born prematurely last year just weeks before he put his heavyweight title on the line against the Bronze Bomber.
Fury and wife Paris welcomed Athena at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary in August 2021 with no signs of any problems surrounding the baby's health. But Athena had an awful turn as a midwife noticed a rapid heart rate and the baby was moved to the Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool with her life hanging in the balance.
Fury initially slept at the Ronald McDonald House, an accommodation for parents attached to the hospital, as Athena stabilised. While his daughter was receiving life-saving treatment, exhausted Fury also had to deal with the looming prospect of his trilogy bout with Wilder as he set about making an off-the-cuff training plan.
But in a heartbreaking turn of events, Fury has detailed the moments where his wife Paris had thought Athena had passed away, and that she had to be resuscitated.
"Apparently, she’d become completely unresponsive while Paris was holding her, then her heartbeat had faded away to nothing," Fury writes in his new book Gloves Off, with extracts reported in The Sun.
"Athena was resuscitated, but Paris was now losing it. A nurse was trying to calm her as the specialist staff went to work. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Eventually, to our enormous relief, and with the grace of God the doctors were able to steady Athena. We were told she would have to remain in hospital until she’d made a full recovery."
Fury would later spend the final weeks of his preparation period for the Wilder bout sleeping both at the hospital accommodation and the floor of the ward that Athena was being treated on.
"In the end it would take three weeks before she was allowed home and for much of the time I slept at the Ronald McDonald House, or on the floor of the hospital ward, feeling exhausted, praying for her to pull through safely, knowing that some parents never got to take their babies home," Fury wrote.
He continued: "Sleeping rough on the floor of a hospital wasn’t the best way to prepare for anything, let alone a world heavyweight title bout against a man who was talking up my murder."
Fury ultimately used the 'horrifying' near death as fuel to motivate him for one of his all-time great performances. He twice had to pick himself up off the canvas in a Las Vegas thriller, before brutally knocking out his opponent in the 11th round last October.
"What was the point in looking for excuses? It was now or never," Fury recalled. "I’d had a tough time for sure, but not as tough a time as Athena – and she’d shown the strength and willpower to fight her way back to life. I would turn her battle into fuel.
"And I did. I beat Wilder with an eleventh round knockout - in one of the most epic fights of all time. It was Athena’s successful battle which inspired me to win mine.”
