Sarah Liegmann – from the ring corner: “Fury can’t stop!”

Before I get started, I’m really glad you’re here to read my column. It’s going to be chaotic, funny, but mainly 100 percent real. I’ll be sharing lots of anecdotes and experiences from the world of boxing, but also giving you some exciting insights into my everyday madness. And now it’s time to clear the ring!

Tyson Fury will be back in the ring on Saturday – and this “again” is crucial, as it is already his third official comeback. Fury is someone who not only experiences extremes, but also embodies them. On the one hand, he is the entertainer: he sings in the ring, provokes at press events and stages himself with almost theatrical self-presentation – these are the manic moments in his life.

On the other side, however, is another man. In recent years, Fury has talked about everything that many athletes are reluctant to talk about in public. In the series “At home with the Furys”, he talks about depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder. He talks about nights when he didn’t know whether he wanted to carry on at all and about phases in which he lost himself – in alcohol, drugs and dark thoughts. Perhaps this is one of the most remarkable parts of his career: not the comebacks themselves, but the fact that he explains them without being able to explain them fully.

If you know his story, his resignations hardly seem like final farewells, but more like pauses. They are attempts to bring order to his inner chaos. For Fury, the end never seems to be a clear point, but rather a state that he obviously cannot endure for long. Fury himself calls his training his medicine. This suggests that the ring is not just a stage for him, but also provides him with a structure that is essential for his mental difficulties.

No desire to end his career

For athletes who enjoy such success and have learned to define themselves through extremes, ordinary life quickly seems flat and almost meaningless. Especially for people like Tyson Fury, who already have a high level of vulnerability, it is almost clear that they cannot and do not want to endure the silence after the end of their career.

The result is a dynamic that drives itself on again and again: Withdrawal, doubt, new focus, a comeback. Not a clean cut, but a cycle. Perhaps this is the real tragedy – and at the same time the fascination. Fury cannot simply stop. For him, quitting not only means the end of his career, but also the end of a state in which, as chaotic as it may be, at least everything makes sense. In the end, the question remains: what if some people are not made to quit for good?