Tyson Fury v Dillian Whyte: SugarHill Steward on bond with heavyweight world champion
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SugarHill Steward has seen his profile skyrocket working with Tyson Fury
"We can just feel each other's emotions sometimes and we're able to pick each other up when it's needed."
Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and his trainer SugarHill Steward share an understanding that goes beyond boxer and coach.
Steward has turned Briton Fury, who has been open about his mental health challenges, into an aggressive puncher in the two years that they have worked together.
Under the American's guidance, Fury dispatched knockout artist Deontay Wilder in back-to-back world title fights.
And outside the ropes - where the mind can get stuck in the past or lost in what might happen in the future - Steward has also become attuned to Fury's mental health needs.
"We don't have to talk about it. We just feel it in each other," Steward tells BBC Sport.
"If you're in a relationship with somebody, or if you have kids - parents know when their kids are not feeling well because they're watching them and they're trying to understand them. It's the same for me and Tyson.
"I'm watching him, trying to understand him. And he's watching me, trying to understand me - so we can help fill each other's many ups and downs if you want to call them ups and downs.
"I just allow Tyson to be himself and it's the same for me - I'm being myself. So me and him are very comfortable in our situation - and in any situation - because we feed off of each other.
"We have that smooth balance like caramel and chocolate. We help each other out - not knowing that we're helping each other out.
Fury defends his WBC title against Dillian Whyte at Wembley
Fury is bipolar, a disorder that can trigger mood changes. He became aware of his condition after feelings of worthlessness, anxiety and severe depression reduced him to his lowest ebb. He was diagnosed in 2016.
For roughly two years after his world title triumph over Wladimir Klitschko in Germany in 2015, Fury admitted to losing his passion for life.
Now a world champion again as the WBC belt holder and preparing to face Dillian Whyte at Wembley on 23 April, Fury has grown from his troubles, according to Steward.
"If Tyson didn't go through what he went through, then how would he be able to help other people mentally if he hadn't gone through it?" he says.
"Now to be able to reach out and touch and help so many people in that manner, because he went through it...
"Had he not gone through it, then what? We wouldn't be talking about the same Tyson Fury.
"Those things we go through are powerful. Those things mean a lot. Not just to us, but to other people and being able to help other people."
At the depth of his depression, Fury had suicidal thoughts.
A psychologist helped the undefeated champion to understand the feelings he was experiencing. As a result, Fury now uses his platform to encourage people to reach out for help if they are struggling.
Last year, the 33-year-old teamed up with suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm) to release an advert. The commercial carried the message: "Sometimes the toughest opponents are the ones you can't see - don't suffer alone."
Steward joined Fury's team before the second fight with Deontay Wilder
In 2021 Calm reported that 115 people die by suicide in the UK every week - with 75% of those deaths being male. Fury hopes that by spreading mental health awareness can positively affect Calm's sobering statistics.
Steward says: "Tyson needed and had to go through certain things in his life to bring him to where he is now, to help and to be able to handle situations a lot differently.
"That's the part of growing and learning in life. You can't take away those experiences from anybody and put them in a position that they're in now because they wouldn't be the same person without those experiences in life.
"It goes for Tyson, myself, for everybody. We all have to have some kind of - I don't want to say struggle - but we have to have gone through some things to get us to this point where we are now. Which makes us even better than we were if we had not been through those things."
Steward will lead Fury into their third bout together, a world title defence against domestic rival Whyte. Some 94,000 fans are expected to break the attendance record at Wembley.
Steward, the trainer with high levels of both boxing IQ and emotional intelligence, has full confidence in his fighter.
"Tyson's a resilient person who likes challenges and whatever obstacles in front of him he conquers," he says. "That's not something that's made. That's just something that's in you, and it's in Tyson."
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- Published16 October 2022
