Tyson and a few of the team whiled away one of these long pre-fight evenings by sitting down to a game of poker in his new mansion.
‘Right here,’ the champ shouted, banging one of those meat cleaver fists on a handsome table beneath the classical artwork in a cavernous kitchen diner.
Then he roared with laughter. Whatever the game, Tyson Fury plays as hard as he will against Deontay Wilder in their trilogy world heavyweight title fight here on Saturday night.
Tyson Fury is in bullish mood as his heavyweight showdown with Deontay Wilder draws closer
So did the cards fall for him as sweetly as he expects to bring America’s Bronze Bomber crashing down again?
‘I just have to win at everything,’ he says with a smile as broad as the front driveway. ‘Don’t I?’
Well, he usually does. Still undefeated. Still heavyweight champion of the world. Still, he didn’t have it all his own way with the cards, as he did when obliterating Wilder in their first rematch.
‘It was a six-man poker tournament,’ he says. ‘Winner takes all, £20 in each. It came down to the last two of us. I was the leading chip holder but the game was dragging on. So I said let’s settle it on who draws the highest single card.
‘I went first. Ouch. Cut a five. Feared that for once I was going to come up second best. Then, bang, a three came out. I thought, “wow”. Couldn’t believe I’d won with a five. For sure you’d never win with a five in any casino on the Strip. High fives all round!’
The Gypsy King has been locked down in a luxury training base ahead of his second rematch
Fury, 33, is not afraid to chip in and takes the bins out between poker games with his team
Fury says he and his family are moving forward after almost losing their sixth child (pictured with wife Paris Fury)
Not that he is letting his £120 winnings go to his head: ‘I’m stashing the money away to take home and put into my bank savings account.’
That said, he came out of the house at dawn the following morning towing large trash bins. Does the champ make a habit of putting out the rubbish? ‘Hey,’ he says. ‘I’m a father of six so of course I do.’
Then he is off running with his brothers and trainers around the luxury estate to which the entry is guarded by two heavily manned sets of iron gates. Some wealthy neighbours keep him jogging on the spot as he signs autographs. The folk next door are walking the dog and he stops to make a smiling fuss of it.
A medic from the local clinic arrives and he stands in the warm sunshine as he performs the latest Covid test on himself: ‘I have to do it because my nose has been broken so often in fights that no one else can manoeuvre the stick in there.’
The result would come back negative. Not to his surprise. He has caused something of a stir by delaying a second vaccination — ‘because I don’t want to get in the ring feeling weak or anything’ — but is confident there will be no repeat of the July postponement of this fight with Wilder because of his coronavirus infection. He is sure he is full of antigens now, saying: ‘I’ve actually had Covid not once but twice.’
Fury regularly takes Covid tests, having tested positive to force the fight to be rescheduled
The British star stops to pet a dog while out on his run with his brothers and trainers
Even so, he is taking more stringent precautions. The team has been pared down to five living in the big house, three more staying at a rented property nearby. He adds: ‘We also keep the bubble secure by having the gym under lock and key with nobody else allowed in while we’re there.’
Then it’s back to his home from
