HOMESICK Tyson Fury has not spoken to his family during his US fight camp — or he would just jump on the first flight back.
Britain’s world heavyweight champion is a big softie when it comes to his six children.
Especially baby daughter Athena, who battled out of intensive care after a terrifying birth in August.
But flying to Las Vegas on September 18 ahead of his trilogy showdown with Deontay Wilder in the early hours of next Sunday forced him to miss the birthdays of Venezuela, 12, and Prince, ten.
Wife Paris shared a video on social media of another daughter sobbing and begging daddy to come home.
But the idea of logging on for video calls with the adoring brood back in Morecambe is too much to bear for the 6ft 9in, 19st Gypsy King.
So he has cut himself off from the people he loves most in the world.
The WBC champion revealed: “I can’t flip a switch from being Daddy Daycare to Baddest Man On the Planet.
“So whatever is going on at home, family life, that just has to stay there.
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“While I’m in camp, I have no involvement in what’s going on at home.
“It sounds very selfish, me being out in Las Vegas, not communicating with the family at all.
“But I’ve got a serious job to handle here and if I was on my phone to my kids every day, I wouldn’t want to be here.
“Right now, I’m putting my neck on the line so they can eat food.
“I’m putting my neck on the line so they can have a good life and they must understand that.
“That’s why you go into training camps for months on end, to get away from it all.”
Fury, 33, and his training team usually spend two months in Sin City, living like monks and training like Trojans.
Athena’s health scare meant he delayed the start of his camp and flight over.
Yet the proud traveller and multi-millionaire, who insists his kids will learn and earn their own way in the world, said they must be tough enough to cope without him.
Fury said: “I’ve only been away for three weeks by the time the fight comes around, which is not the usual thing. I usually come over eight weeks before.
“But I’ve had a lot of problems back home and that’s meant I’ve been over here for three weeks, which isn’t the end of the world.
“If they can’t deal without me for three weeks of their life, then we have a problem.”
Fury usually spends months with American trainer Sugar Hill Steward as well as his cousin former world champion and assistant trainer Andy Lee.
But travel restrictions limited Fury to just a few days with the Detroit ex-cop in the UK before they jetted off to Nevada, with Lee missing out altogether.
His preparations have been far from ideal, but Fury reckons the agony he is feeling, seven days out from the fight, means he is on track for another epic display.
Without a shred of sarcasm, Fury admitted: “I feel terrible, absolutely terrible.
“But if you did an eight-week training camp, were just winding down and feeling fantastic, you didn’t do it right.
“If you brutalise your body for eight weeks, training twice a day, six days a week, getting battered in sparring by four or five guys at a time, if you feel great then you’re a bionic human being.
“But in a week’s time, I will feel fantastic. Right now, I feel sore, I feel pain and a lot more pain.”
Wilder put the blame for his battering by Fury in February 2020 on everyone but himself.
The American even accused his rival of loading his gloves with metal objects and bribing the ref.
But Fury is thankful Wilder is in the firing line to give him another pay day, especially after losing his £200m fight with Anthony Joshua when he lost to Oleksandr Usyk.
Asked if he wished the Wilder fight was not ordered by a judge, so he could target the rest of the division, he said: “I never wish time away for myself. I enjoy every second of my life.
“Life’s too short to wish Wilder was here already. I love every day I’m alive and breathing.
“I’m not sick of Deontay, he keeps making me money which gives my family a better life.
“Whoever it is, I get paid to go in there and do a job, put on a show and entertain, then go home. This will be the same.”
Wilder’s blame game extended to sacking former Olympic and world champion Mark Breland from his coaching team for throwing in the towel to save him.
He also axed the designers who made his ‘heavy’ ring-walk costume, claiming it cost him all his energy.
But his baseless attempts to tarnish Fury’s coronation are not getting under the Brit’s skin.
The Gypsy King said: “I don’t think you can get any more convincing a win.
“It was the most one-sided heavyweight beatdown I’ve seen of an undefeated world champion.
“It wasn’t just like he got caught in the first, like Michael Spinks against Mike Tyson, it was a breakdown, round after round.
“But there’s always going to be excuses from people when they don’t live up to their expectations”
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