Tyson Fury has made an incredible claim that athletes “deserve a million times more” than what they currently get paid due to the strenuous training regimes they have to put themselves through.
The 32-year-old posted a series of stories on his Instagram page showing the rather unglamorous side to his career, including several cold jogs all by himself such as the one he went on Monday.
And during those stories, the WBC champion gave fans an insight into what his rigorous daily routine – which he has followed since just before he became a teenager – looks like.
He insisted keeping to the routines requires such dedication and made the audacious claim that all professional athletes should earn more money than they currently rake in.
“A little bit of behind the scenes,” Fury said. “People only see the glitz and the glamour of boxing on the night and all the entertainment.
“But they don’t see the hard work which goes in. They don’t see the running in the rain, running in the snow and the cold.
“They don’t see the entire long nights and early mornings, on your own. It’s just all a bit of a mirage. Any boxer, whatever they get, any athlete, they deserve a million times more.
“Because, nobody knows, apart from other athletes, the work, the sacrifice, the dedication that goes in over the years.
“From being 11 to 12 years old, I’ve been doing the same stuff day in, day out, day in, day out.
“Rain, sun, hail, snow – work. So, remember, never disrespect athletes because you don’t know what it takes to do it.”
Fury’s hard work over the years appears to have paid off, however, going 31 bouts undefeated since transitioning from an amateur into a professional 13 years ago.
However, his claims come despite the fact that he earned a staggering £46 million last year, as revealed by Forbes in May, making him the highest-paid combat athlete in the world.
That figure included a huge financial payday of a reported £19.4 million after his historic victory against Deontay Wilder in February 2020.
Forbes said the Manchester-born star earned £40 million from his three bouts between May 2019 and May 2020 following victories against American Wilder as well as Otto Walin and Tom Schwarz, while the rest of his earnings came from sponsorship.
That most recent win however has set him up for a mouth-watering all-British showdown with Anthony Joshua, with all the world heavyweight titles at stake.
The proposed two-fight deal could be worth up to a staggering £500 million to the fighters but the mandatory challenger for Joshua’s WBO belt, Oleksandr Usyk, has not agreed to step aside to allow the unification showdown to take place, so some obstacles remain.