Tyson Fury had concussion, ‘massive swelling’ and feared brain damage after third Deontay Wilder fight, but came back to face Oleksandr Usyk

Tyson Fury’s trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder in 2021 led him to make the decision to briefly retire from boxing the following year.

The WBC heavyweight world champion spent a few months insisting he’d quit the sport for good, despite many doubts (which ultimately proved correct) from those in the boxing world.

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Fury announced his brief retirement after knocking out Dillian Whyte in April 2022, and explained that his decision was actually first prompted by the fight before this.

Discussing his trilogy win over Wilder, Fury said: “I knocked him out in round 11, but it wasn’t just hunky dory and let’s all skip back to the changing rooms.

“I was feeling the back of my head and I had lumps on the back of my head like fists.

“I didn’t know if I had brain damage, I didn’t know what was up with me.

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“I was very frightened because I had these massive swellings on the back of my head.

“I was thinking, ‘I could end up with brain damage.’ I was concussed, I didn’t remember anything.

“I suppose when you get knocked down like that you don’t remember a lot. I was thinking, ‘Did I get put down four times?’ I actually got put down twice.

“I thought to myself, ‘You know what? I think it’s time to call it a day.’ That was after Wilder 3.

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“I promised Paris, I said, ‘This is gonna be my last fight babe, I won’t put you through this anymore.’

“I saw everyone ringside and the amount of stress it was putting on them. I actually said, ‘I won’t fight again after this. I meant it.’

“I got back home, I had a couple of weeks doing the bins and the school run… I said to Paris, ‘I’m gonna do one more fight babe, in England.’

“I felt like I needed to come back to England and have another big fight in the UK.”

Responding to calls for him to return, Fury added: “I definitely had a successful career, but how many times do you have to risk getting injured? People say, ‘One more, two more, ten more.’

“But if I was to wheel myself out here in a wheelchair and say, ‘I had four more fights guys and got brain damage, thank you very much.’

“I’m the one that’s getting in there getting punched in the head by these giant men. You’ve gotta want to do these fights. I don’t want to come back to boxing.”

Not long later, Fury did in fact change his tune and came back to face Derek Chisora in December 2022.

After a win over Francis Ngannou last year, he is now set to face Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed crown on May 18.

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