London: England’s former heavyweight boxing world champion Frank Bruno denied claims Sunday he was using drugs to fight depression and he urged the media to back off and stop “terrorising” him.

The 41-year-old, who won the WBC title when he outpointed Oliver McCall over 12 rounds at Wembley in 1995, has been the subject of intense media coverage in recent weeks after checking into a well known drugs and alcohol rehabilitation clinic after the collapse of his marriage.

“If I go to the toilet, it’s front page news. I don’t think anybody’s got a right to tape, bug, film, follow, terrorise someone like they’ve been terrorising me, and I think it’s about time people just back off and give me a little bit of breathing space,” he told BBC Radio 5.

Hitting back at accusations that he was Britain’s answer to Mike Tyson Bruno said: “I’m not the English Mike Tyson, I’m the English Frank Bruno I always was.”

Bruno described himself as a prisoner in his own home and admitted he had endured a rough time of it following his divorce from his wife Laura.

But he stressed: “I’ve been through a lot of pressure, a lot of stress and things like that, but I’m feeling stronger and stronger and stronger every day.”

Asked directly if he had taken steroids or cocaine, the former boxer turned pantomime performer replied: “Not that I know of, no.” He added: “Could all those people who are saying that I’m taking drugs and whatever, could they come to my house and let me drug test them and see how much drugs they’ve got in their bodies?

“Why don’t people who say I’m doing whatever come to my house?” (AFP)