Javan "Sugar" Hill a/k/a SugarHill Steward is Tyson Fury’s new trainer – but their connection is an old one. Steward has taken up one of boxing’s jobs in training the former world heavyweight king having originally worked with Fury at Detroit’s famous Kronk gym under Steward’s mentor, the legendary Emmanuel Steward. With a decade of friendship and trust between them, Steward is eager to guide his new charge to a colossal 2020. Steward said: “It all came as a bit of a surprise but I’m very happy and I’m very excited because I’ve worked with him before. It’s very important to have someone with the kind of spirit that Tyson has. I’m a free-spirited person myself, just like him and it’s important to have fun when you’re training because it helps you learn.

 

“Think about it. When you’re locked up in a tight situation, you don’t want to feel stiff, so when you practice relaxing and having fun in preparation, you learn faster. It’s proven. Look at how we learn ABCs – it’s playful.

 

“I think it’s going to be very good. I’m going to be honest with him and he’ll be honest with me too. We don’t waste time hinting at things – if something is wrong then we feel free to talk to each other about it.

 

“I’m sure that it’s the same thing [former trainer] Ben [Davison] and Tyson had together. When you have that honest relationship, it makes for the best and most successful kind of combination. It’s true not just in boxing but in sport and throughout history.”

 

Of course, it wasn’t all fun and games back when Steward and Fury teamed up back in 2010… They also competed at the serious business of poker. Steward joked: “The first thing I want to do is to play him at poker again so I can get back at him! When he first got to camp and we started playing poker, he started off very strong. It took a while for me and Andy Lee and the others to find our rhythm. Tyson is a very good poker player with all his bullsh*tting and bluffing!”

 

Fury conquered the heavyweight world when he dethroned Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015 to seize the WBA Super, IBF and WBO world titles.