Tyson Fury is expected to tip the scales at his career-high heaviest weight for the trilogy fight against Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Fury has been known to allow his weight to balloon between fights, as he did in the years after first becoming heavyweight world champion by beating Wladimir Klitschko back in 2015.
Ahead of the weigh-in, due to take place at 10pm UK time on Friday, Fury’s team claimed he had been working to reduce the edge in a weight difference, which could be as much as four stone over his opponent.
His trainer, SugarHill Steward, said: “It’s not going to be 300 pounds. It’s probably going to be more like 290 or something, but not 300 exactly.
“Heavier than the last time by 20 pounds or so. Why not? The bigger, the better; the heavier, the stronger.
“He’s training with that weight he has built up. It’s not like he’s just putting on fat, it’s building up muscles.”
There have been question marks about what shape Fury will be in going into the fight.
Reports from early sparring sessions suggested Fury was being outboxed by partners in the ring, while there was the horrible stress he was under when his daughter, Athena, was placed in intensive care last month.
The 33-year-old, however, is adamant he will be as nimble on his feet whatever the build-up to the fight or his weight, which he claims is not a concern.
He said: “As a heavyweight it’s not really important what I come in at. Whether I come in at 220 pounds to fight or 290, it’s really unimportant. We don’t train to make a weight or whatever. Whatever I fight at is what I fight at. Whatever I walk in that ring at or whatever I jump on them scales, then that’s what it is.
“I’m not going to starve myself on the day of the weigh-in to make the number on the scale.
“Or I’m not going to overeat to make a number on the scale. I’m a massive giant anyway.
“Whatever I weigh on the day for the fight is what I’ll weigh, it’s not something that we’re interested in because I’ve been in the gym training and boxing for the last 10 months for this and I’ve been performing. It’s really unimportant.”
Fury was a career-heaviest 273lbs when he knocked out Wilder in their last meeting back in February 2020.
That was some 17.5lbs heavier than the Gypsy King was for the pair’s first meeting and he looks to have put on similar weight for a third and final meeting.
In contrast, the American tipped the scales at 231lbs for fight two and is expected to weigh in somewhere between 230 and 240lbs later in Las Vegas.
As for the outcome of tomorrow night’s fight, Fury’s father, John, insisted there was only one outcome.
He said: “Tyson is going to end Wilder’s career, knock him out. His career is over.
“The only chance he has got is if Tyson goes to sleep on the job and lets him hit him. That’s the only chance I am giving him.”
