Tyson Fury opens up on how depression changed him

As Tyson Fury prepares for his next fight due in a month since his return to the rings this year, the heavyweight boxer  shared  how depression had been like  after he had retired from the ring.

After defeating Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf to become WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight champion — Fury spoke of how life 'away from the ring' had him in depression at the age 27, that was ‘ready to die’ in the months after claiming the championship in 2015.

“It wasn’t until after the Klitschko fight — a very massive high — that I had to avert to an even worse low. The lowest low that anyone could ever have,” he said  in a video podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

“I’d wake up and think, ‘Why did I wake up this morning?’ And this is coming from a man who won everything. Money, fame, glory, titles, a wife, family and kids — everything.

“But I felt as if I had nothing, a gaping hole that was just filled with gloom and doom.”

He said that overtaking Klitschko’s stance had drawn him into personal crises— where later he was stripped of his IBF belt seven days after his triumph after a rematch clause with the Ukranian.

Fury claimed the IBF “didn’t expect him to win” and stripped him because he refused to enter negotiations for a fight with mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov.

“But I didn’t have the desire to fight. The fire wasn’t burning,” Fury continued. “I was depressed as depressed could be on a daily basis. Some people will say I was attention seeking or whatever, but unless you’ve experienced what I’m saying it’s impossible to understand.”

He shared that the situation had crumbled from ‘bad to worse’ when he indulged with drugs, alcohol and partying to shrug off his depression.

“The worst thing someone suffering with their mental health (can do) is get into drugs and alcohol.”

He retired at 27 as the second champion in heavyweight history to leave the ring undefeated— but the urge to fight had him in frustration until one time he attempted to harm himself in a speedy Ferrari.

"I was making everyone’s life a misery, no-one could talk any sense into me at all,” he said.

“I would start thinking these crazy thoughts. I bought a brand new Ferrari convertible in the summer of 2016.

“I was in it on the highway and at the bottom, I got the car up to 190mp/h (305km/h) and heading towards a bridge.

“I didn’t care about nothing, I just wanted to die so bad. I gave up on life but as I was heading to the bridge I heard a voice saying, ‘No, don’t do this Tyson, think about your kids, your family, your sons and daughter growing up without a dad.’

“Before I turned into the bridge I pulled onto the motorway, I didn’t know what to do, I was shaking, I was so afraid.

“I said I’d never think about taking my own life again.”

Fury came back to the ring in June 2018 and defeated Francesco Pianeta and then Sefer Seferi— where he next aims to defeat US star Deontay Wilder in a Los Angeles fight on December 2.