Billy Joe Saunders reveals he talked Tyson Fury out of a suicide attempt
BILLY JOE SAUNDERS has revealed he talked Tyson Fury out of a suicide attempt when he 28st and at his lowest ebb.
The Gypsy King’s world fell apart after his brilliant November 2015 win over Wladimir Klitschko, when crippling depression sent him into a spiral of binge eating, booze and cocaine.
But 30-year-old fellow Traveller, Saunders, invited him over to his Marbella training camp in 2016 and set him up with current trainer Ben Davison after a brutally honest heart-to-heart.
Ahead of his WBO super-middleweight world title defence against Esteban Coceres, on the KSI vs Logan Paul undercard, Saunders said: “I called him on a Thursday and told him I would book him his ticket and he would be with us by Saturday. But then he rang up on Friday and tried to make excuses to pull out.
“He walked through the airport arrivals and I thought ‘f****** hell’, I did not even recognise him.
“That night we sat down and chatted for about two hours. He was talking about suicide and I said ‘why the f*** are you talking about suicide to me?’
“I said ‘if you commit suicide now, who is going to look after your sons and daughters and wife’?
“I asked him what his sons would feel like if their dad was a world champion who killed himself and how he would feel if he knew one of his sons were going to do it.
“I had to put his kids into the equation because I knew that was the only thing left that he actually cared about. Fame, money and boxing meant nothing to him.
“He stayed for two weeks, got on really well with Ben and that was it, he got right in the swing of things with Ben and they clicked. Ben has ended up being like a family member and a minder.”
The IBF cruelly stripped Fury of his hard-earned belt just 10 days after his Dusseldorf triumph and the remainder of his belts were handed back voluntarily after he refused a drug test and admitted to using cocaine to fight his depression.
The 31-year-old spent two-and-a-half years out of the ring but almost shocked the world with a win over Deontay Wilder, just six months and two tune-up fights into his comeback, only to land a harsh draw.
The 6ft 9in showman has since had two fights in Las Vegas and wrestled for the WWE in Saudi Arabia and, while some of his critics remain staunch doubters, Saunders just loves seeing his old pal smile again.
Hatfield southpaw Saunders added: “Me and Tyson have been friends since I was 15, on the England boxing squad, going to different countries together.
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“We are very good mates and I have been with him in good and dark times.
“Having seen how bad he was, everything now is just fun because I know first-hand that he was 100 thinking about suicide.
“Some people still question whether he really had depression but I know first-hand he had bad depression and suicide on his mind.”