Tyson Fury reveals he was left scared after not being able to remember how many times Deontay Wilder knocked him down

TYSON FURY wanted to retire from boxing after forgetting how many times he was sent to the canvas in his trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder.

The Gypsy King closed the book on his epic rivalry with the former WBC heavyweight champion with a brutal 11th-round knockout in their Sin City showdown last October.

But Fury’s first title defence came at a cost as he was dropped twice by the vicious power puncher, knockdowns he couldn’t recall in the immediate aftermath of the fight.

In his new autobiography, the 34-year-old said: “So while getting my face punched in for a living has put millions of pounds in the bank, a fighter needs to know when their time is ­up and mine is near.

“Walking away from boxing may be the hardest thing I ever do.

“All I know is that I don’t want to overstay my welcome, ruin my legacy, or die from a big right to the side of the head.

“And believe me, an ending like that has felt worryingly real at times.

“I even experienced short-­term memory loss following that bruising encounter with Wilder in 2021, when, in the hours after the win, my head covered in tennis ball-­sized lumps, it was impossible to remember how many times I’d gone down.

“Everything was foggy, and the experience frightened me.”

The bruising encounter scared Fury stiff and hastened his plans to walk away from the sport.

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He continued: “No way do I want to end up living out my days in a wheelchair, or eating my dinners through a straw.

“After that fight with Wilder, I told my promoter Frank Warren that I planned to retire.”

Fury did eventually hang up his gloves after his brutal sixth-round knockout of Dillian Whyte in April, although he’s since performed a U-turn on that decision.

The former unified heavyweight champion will defend his WBC strap against Derek Chisora at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on December 3.

And the prospect of retirement seems like an afterthought for the Wythenshawe warrior, who recently told talKSPORT: “I ain’t going anywhere.

“I had retirement for four or five months and I didn’t like what I tasted.

“I could fight maybe ten more times.

“I have everything the world has to offer and that to me is not interesting.

“The only thing that really gets me going is boxing, fighting and training.

“There are no goals for me in boxing anymore. I’m doing this because it is the only thing I know.”