SugarHill Steward, the trainer of Tyson Fury, has confirmed that he will be training the WBC world heavyweight champion for his non-title contest against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
The contest will be held on October 28th in Saudi Arabia and will be marked as the pro debut of Ngannou.
Fury has been inactive following his stoppage victory over Dereck Chisroa in December last year at New White Heart Lane Stadium, London.
Criticism has been coming towards Fury for most of this year following his failed and bold attempts to negotiate an undisputed world heavyweight title contest with Oleksandr Usyk, provisionally dated for April 29th. However, talks collapsed following an inability to agree to financial terms regarding any possible rematches.
A provisional offer was submitted to Anthony Joshua and his handlers for a contest for the summer. However, Joshua swiftly rejected that offer in favour of a rematch with Dillian Whyte and a probable fight with Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia in late 2023 or early 2024.
Ultimately, Steward is just happy to see Tyson being able to return to the ring again.
“For me, I’m just happy that Tyson’s fighting, you know, in boxing, things don’t happen the way we want them to happen… Everybody else in the heavyweight division is fighting, so if Tyson is fighting who he is fighting, then I’m happy for that,” Steward told TNT Sports.
“But, it’s a lot more than just a fighter saying they want to fight. Both sides have teams, and they have to agree and negotiate and make things happen for it to be possible. Whenever [Fury] calls me and they have an official press conference, then we’re all locked in and ready.”
Steward has been subject to criticism from Fury’s father, John, who has urged his son to sack SugarHill from being his trainer. John objected to comments earlier in the year when SugarHill was in Britain as the trainer of former WBO world cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie in March.
Okolie would face mandatory challenger David Light in Manchester, and Fury was seen training alongside Steward and Okolie. However, Steward said at the time said his priority was Lawrence Okolie because he had a fight with Light [and a fight in the works with Chris Billam-Smith at the time of comments]. John was incensed by comments and urged his son to remove him from being his trainer.
John reaffirmed his view that he wishes SugarHill was removed as Tyson’s trainer and believes that a “Pigeon” could train the WBC world heavyweight world champion.
“If a man turns on you, they’ve got to go, haven’t they? Going back to Sugar Hill about him saying that he wasn’t training Tyson, that was a lie. He had no need to say that; I’m waiting to see him to his face to tell him it’s a lie. It will probably cause problems, but I don’t care what it causes; he’s getting told off me one way or the other,” John Fury told Mirror Fighting.
“It’s in his best interest to avoid me because I won’t have them snakes near me. There’s a world full of them, be straight. He was living in Tyson’s house. Where was he coming from with that bullsh!t? I stand by what I say, he’s down the road as far as I’m concerned, but it’s not my call; if [Tyson] had any sense, he would get rid of him.
“A pigeon could train Tyson. He’s that good, honestly. Give him a drink of water, wash his gumshield out and let him go. All of those expensive trainers are not needed. Until he made that comment, I couldn’t sing his praises high enough. Tyson got on with him, and we thought he was a family friend, but to me, that was just terrible what he did.”
