Tyson Fury appreciates Javan Steward more than ever, now that they’ve had a lot more time to work together.

Steward, most commonly known by his nickname, “Sugar Hill,” spent less than two months preparing Fury for his impressive victory over Deontay Wilder in their rematch, a seventh-round stoppage in February 2020 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Fury hired Steward to replace former trainer Ben Davison in December 2019 and they quickly rebuilt Fury into an aggressive knockout puncher prior to his second showdown with the hard-hitting Wilder.

England’s Fury took a more tactical approach to his first fight with Wilder, which resulted in a 12-round split draw in December 2018 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion overcame two knockdowns during their initial meeting, one in the ninth round and another in the 12th round, to make it to the final bell.

Fury feels much more comfortable with Steward entering their third bout Saturday night because Fury figures they’ve done “four or five” training camps for an ESPN/FOX Sports Pay-Per-View event that has been postponed multiple times.

“I spent quite a lot of time with ‘Sugar,’ ” Fury stated during a Zoom conference call recently. “We had about one, two, three – we’ve had four or five training camps now, back-to-back. We even spent a lot of time in our holidays together, where we were still ticking over, still little bits and pieces. I’ve had a lot of time to get used to his style a bit more now and he’s a fantastic coach, the most knowledgeable, the most experienced boxing man that I’ve ever had around me, by far. His boxing knowledge is second to none. Very, very, very good technical boxing coach, best I’ve ever had in the last 10 years I’d say, for sure.”

Steward, a former Detroit police officer, is a nephew of the late Emanuel Steward, renowned for training Thomas Hearns, Lennox Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko and nearly 40 more world champions. He legally changed his surname from Hill to Steward in 2019 to honor his uncle’s memory.

Fury and Steward returned to Las Vegas two weeks ago, after spending the previous two months preparing in Fury’s home country of England for this third fight with Wilder. The 33-year-old Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) is consistently listed as a 3-1 favorite to conquer Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs), of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, again Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.