It is believed that Tyson Fury had faked an injury in the build-up to his rematch bout with Deontay Wilder late last month in order to discover if there was a mole in his training camp and play mind games, his cousin Andy Lee revealed.
The Gypsy King stepped over the challenge of the Bronze Bomber to claim his WBC heavyweight title in Vegas, a match-up that was steeped with speculation over the fitness of the lineal heavyweight champion.
Rumours surfaced surrounding a potential ankle injury for the Brit, which helped prompt doubt over the game plan of the light-footed Fury.
However, that certainly wasn’t the case with the 31-year-old toppling the American in a masterful display, which resulted in Wilder’s team having to throw the towel in the seventh round.
Now, Lee has claimed that the rumours were made by his cousin in hope to get into the head of The Bronze Bomber.
“There was a couple days where Tyson messed around to see if leaks would happen,” Lee said to Boxing Social, as per The Express.
He feigned injury or pretended to limp after a sparring session just to see what would happen.
“That’s the type of level of deviousness you’re dealing with, with him. Inside his own training camp he’ll put on a show and play act to see if anyone talks outside the camp.”
Though, that’s not the only example of the Brit showing smart and critical thinking, with Fury refusing to drink water given to him that was not from his camp with fear of being spiked.
“He absolutely performed perfectly in training and worked extremely hard,” said Lee.
“People see this larger than life character, but when it comes to training, he works extremely hard.
“He’s very focused and serious about what he does. He didn’t cut any corners or allow himself any small treats.
“He stuck to his diet and regiment as strict as he could be. Maybe he had to because he knew the fight he was in.”
Preparations will not stop there, though, with Fury stepping into the squared circle for a third time with Wilder after the American exercised the trilogy fight clause in his contract.
Speaking about the trilogy bout on ITV’s This Morning, Fury stated: “I beat him the first time, I beat him the second time and I surely will beat him the third time.
“The one thing I will say about Deontay Wilder is he’s a very worthy opponent.
“He’s a very dangerous opponent and he has that eraser power of 41 knockouts, only the one defeat. So you can never write a guy off like that.
“It’s always one punch away from disaster with Deontay because, like he famously says: ‘They have to be correct for 36 minutes, I have to be correct for one second’. And that’s so true.”