By Wally Downes Jr.

The Baddest Man on the Planet has gone against his fellow American knockout artist and thrown his support behind Tyson Fury, who was named in his honour.

The 53-year-old boxing legend said: “I like both of them as fighters, they both came from nothing and achieved becoming heavyweight champion, you have to respect that, I was in their position one time.

“In the first fight I was hoping for Tyson Fury, I always pulled for him because he was named after me, that is the natural thing to do, right?

“I was always biased toward him. He is very likeable, he is a nice person.

“I never understood Tyson, I just kept seeing him beating decent fighters.

“I didn’t know if they were washed up or throwing the fights because Tyson did not look like he should be beating them.

“But he was and he was laughing at them, that made me a fan. He is so much better than what he appears to be and looks like.”

Iron Mike watched the sensational first fight in 2018, when Fury twice rose from the canvas to salvage a draw after he had surged ahead on points.

The 12th round resurrection was bar far the most incredible and the Hangover movie star said it was straight out of Hollywood.

He said: “It was almost like a fairytale how he went down and got back it, it looked like he was finished. It looked like a screenplay.

“He amazed a lot of people by getting up. He showed he is tough, he got up and won the final round.

“I thought it was over, then he got up and it was like Rocky, he then fought back. It was amazing, it made me a fan. It takes great fortitude and belief.”

Wilder recently dared to claim he would beat history’s youngest ever heavyweight champion in a dream cross-era bout.

But the once terrifying Tyson, who wrestled his pet tigers and bit chunks out of a couple of opponents, has a far more Zen outlook now.

When asked if Wilder would KO him in a fantasy fight, he said: “I don’t know but I love the fact that he thinks he would.

“Because if I was asked about fighting him, I would say that I would win as well.

“He is supposed to think like that, he is the heavyweight champion of the world and that is something very special and I hope he never forgets that.”

Article courtesy of The Sun