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Heavyweight champ Tyson Fury asked Belfast coach to train him

Renowned Belfast boxing coach John Breen has revealed how new world champion Tyson Fury asked him to train him ahead of bouts last year. Picture by Seamus Loughran
Renowned Belfast boxing coach John Breen has revealed how new world champion Tyson Fury asked him to train him ahead of bouts last year. Picture by Seamus Loughran Renowned Belfast boxing coach John Breen has revealed how new world champion Tyson Fury asked him to train him ahead of bouts last year. Picture by Seamus Loughran

TOP Belfast boxing coach John Breen has told how he was approached and asked to train Tyson Fury, who shocked the world of boxing on Saturday night to clinch the heavyweight world title.

Fury (27), who has links with Northern Ireland and has cousins in Co Antrim, defeated Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko to become the WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight champion of the world in a bout in Germany.

Back in 2013, the Belfast coach received a call from Fury, who asked Breen to train him for an upcoming bout in Madison Square Gardens in New York in March 2014.

Breen, who runs a gym in Lombard Street in Belfast city centre, said: "I told him that if he was coming over I was the boss and he had to play by my rules; I said I had seen him waving at his granny, grandad and all sorts of people in the crowd and if he carried on with all that, I would give him a slap in the head. He told me he was fine with that."

However, the champion boxer called off the planned trip to Belfast for family reasons.

"That never happened and he continued to train closer to home, but he has called into the gym the odd day here when he’s been over."

The former Commonwealth champion is no stranger to Belfast, having trained briefly as an amateur with the Holy Family Boxing Club in north Belfast and later defeating Belfast boxer Martin Rogan in five rounds in a fight in the city in 2012.

He also signed autographs for children and fans at the Reccy Centre in the New Lodge in the run-up to the bout with Rogan.

Fury also fought in Belfast in 2011 when he stopped Nicolai Firtha in the fifth round of their heavyweight contest at the King's Hall.

The British and Commonwealth champion dominated the opening two rounds but Firtha had his opponent in trouble with a big punch in the third.

In 2011, Fury told a boxing website: "I have been coming back and forward (to Belfast) for a long time since I was 12 years old. It is always somewhere where I have liked to come and I am even thinking about coming out here and living here."

Breen, whose wife won £400 by backing Fury in a bet on Saturday’s fight, said he was not surprised at the outcome, although put his success down to hard graft rather than natural ability.

"I too would have backed him; he is over ten years younger and I knew he would make Klitschko go forward and he doesn't like going forward.

"He had the dedication to do it. He wouldn't have had the most ability but he works to the death and has great self-belief."

Coach to several world champions, including Dave Boy McAuley and Paul Hodkinson, the Belfast man has said he would "advise Tyson to keep at it, and make a few pound out of it."

Aside from his performance in the ring, the trainer was also unsurprised by Fury’s rendition of an Aerosmith classic, 'I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing', to celebrate his victory.

The jubilant boxer burst into song in front of the 50,000 strong crowd, dedicating it to his wife Paris, who told him she was pregnant with the couple’s third child on Friday.

He said: "I think he is a lovely big fella, and he is eccentric. He always did come off with his own stuff."

"People think he is a big eejit but it is just the way he carries on. He is just a big child at heart."