Mick Hennessy

Tyson Luke Fury (born 12 August 1988) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2008 to 2024. He held multiple world heavyweight championships, including unified titles from 2015 to 2016, the ''Ring'' magazine title twice between 2015 and 2022, and the World Boxing Council (WBC) title from 2020 to 2024. He also held the International Boxing Organization (IBO) title during his first reign as champion.

At regional level, he held multiple heavyweight championships, including the British title twice between 2011 and 2015; the European title from 2014 to 2015; and the Commonwealth title from 2011 to 2012. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal at the 2006 World Junior Championships; gold at the 2007 EU Junior Championships; silver at the 2007 European Junior Championships; and won the ABA super-heavyweight title in 2008.

In 2015, his victorious fight against Wladimir Klitschko was named Upset of the Year and earned him Fighter of the Year by ''The Ring''. In 2018, his drawn fight against Deontay Wilder was named Round of the Year and earned him Comeback of the Year by ''The Ring''. In 2020, with his defeat of Deontay Wilder, Fury became the third heavyweight, after Floyd Patterson and Muhammad Ali, to hold ''The Ring'' magazine title twice, and was widely considered by media outlets to be the lineal heavyweight champion. In 2021, his trilogy fight against Wilder was named Fight of the Year by ''The Ring''.

Early life

Tyson Luke Fury was born in the Wythenshawe area of Manchester on 12 August 1988, the son of Irish Traveller parents Amber and John Fury. He was born three months premature and weighed just . His father named him after Mike Tyson, who was the reigning undisputed heavyweight world champion, and later explained, "The doctors told me there was not much chance of him living. I had lost two daughters in the same way who had been born prematurely." He decided on the name "Tyson" as Fury was "a fighter" and survived the premature birth.

Fury grew up in Styal, Cheshire, and later often mentioned his love for both Styal and his birthplace of Manchester. His paternal grandfather was from Tuam, which is also the birthplace of his father. The Furys are of Irish origin, deriving their present surname from Ó Fiodhabhra. His maternal grandmother is from County Tipperary and his mother was born in Belfast.Tyson Fury added to Dunne card
RTÉ Sport, Thursday, 17 September 2009 17:17 Despite strongly identifying with his Irish heritage, Fury has had problems in gaining dual citizenship because his father's birth in County Galway was not recorded civilly in the 1960s, as Irish Travellers at the time only recorded births through baptism with the church rather than officially with the state. After defeating Wladimir Klitschko, Fury would quip that "becoming the heavyweight champion of the world is not as hard a fight as proving isIrishness".

Fury left school when he was 11, and joined his father and three brothers tarmacking roads. His mother Amber had 14 pregnancies but only four of the children survived. A daughter, Ramona, was born in December 1997 but died within days. This experience has stayed with Fury, who was nine years old at the time. Fury began boxing at the age of 10. His father, John, trained him until 2011, when he was jailed for gouging out the eye of another Traveller due to a long-standing feud. Fury's uncle Hughie Fury trained him until he died in 2014, after which Fury's other uncle Peter Fury (trainer of son Hughie Fury) trained him in preparation for his fight against Klitschko.

The Fury family has a long history in boxing. Fury's father competed in the 1980s as "Gypsy" John Fury, initially as a bare-knuckle and unlicensed boxer, and then as a professional boxer. John had a professional record of 8–4–1, with one of his losses being to future WBO heavyweight world champion Henry Akinwande. Tyson's half-brother Tommy made his professional debut on 22 December 2018 under the tutelage of two-weight world champion Ricky Hatton. Fury is also a cousin of several professional boxers, including heavyweights Hughie Fury and Nathan Gorman, former WBO middleweight world champion Andy Lee and light heavyweight contender Hosea Burton. Fury's distant relatives include the bare-knuckle boxers Uriah Burton and Bartley Gorman, both considered "King of the Gypsies", hence Fury's own nickname of "Gypsy King". He has also styled himself as "The Furious One" and "2 Fast" Fury.

Amateur career

As an amateur, Fury represented both England and Ireland. Fury represented Ireland three times at international level. He was based out of the Holy Family Boxing Club in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and later switched to the Smithboro Club in County Monaghan, Ireland. In a double international match against an experienced Polish team in 2007, the Irish team lost 12–6 overall; Fury, however, was victorious in both his fights in Rzeszów and Białystok. In another Irish match against the US, Fury won his bout by knockout. He won bronze at the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in 2006.

In England, while representing Jimmy Egan's Boxing Academy in Wythenshawe, Manchester, he participated in the senior national championships in 2006 but was beaten by David Price 22–8. In May 2007, he won the EU Junior Championship, defeating Istvan Bernath in the final. In July 2007 he won silver at the European Junior Championship, losing to Maxim Babanin in the final.

As a junior, Fury was ranked number three in the world behind the Russians Maxim Babanin and Andrey Volkov, but did not get the chance to represent Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics because each country is restricted to one boxer per weight division and David Price was selected. Price came up through the amateur Olympic programme. Fury also unsuccessfully tried to qualify for Ireland. Speaking in 2011, Fury said "I should have gone to the Olympic games in 2008 and won a gold medal for Ireland, but I was denied the chance to go and do it" He was also forced to withdraw from the Irish national championships after officials from the Holy Trinity Boxing Club in West Belfast, the club of the then Irish amateur heavyweight champion, submitted a protest regarding his eligibility as he was not born in Ireland.

Fury won the ABA super-heavyweight title in 2008 by defeating Damien Campbell 19:1. He turned professional later that year. Feeling disillusioned with amateur boxing, he decided not to wait for the 2012 Olympics. He finished with an amateur record of 31–4 (26 KOs).

Professional career

Early career

Fury made his professional debut at the age of 20 on 6 December 2008 in Nottingham, on the undercard of Carl Froch vs. Jean Pascal against Hungarian fighter Bela Gyongyosi (3–9–2), who Fury defeated via TKO in the first round with a combination to head and body. He then had six more fights in the space of seven months, defeating Marcel Zeller (21–3), Daniil Peretyatko (15–20), Lee Swaby (23–22–2), Matthew Ellis (20–6–1), Scott Belshaw (10–1) and Aleksandrs Selezens (3–6) all via knockout within 4 rounds.

On 11 September 2009, Fury fought John McDermott (25–5, 16 KOs) for the English heavyweight title, and won via a points decision. Fury came in as a 1–6 favourite but produced a poor display, and the 98–92 decision by the referee Terry O'Connor was criticised as a "travesty". The decision led the British Boxing Board of Control to mandate three judges for all English titles, and the board ordered a rematch.

Fury scored two more victories against Tomas Mrazek (4–22–5) and Hans-Joerg Blasko (9–3) before facing McDermott in a rematch on 25 June 2010. Fury settled the controversy of the first fight, as he knocked down McDermott three times, first in the 8th round then twice in the 9th round to win by TKO. Fury won the English heavyweight title for a second time in the process. Another three wins followed: points decisions over American fighters Rich Power (12–0) and Zack Page (21–32–2) in two 8-round matches, and a knockout of the Brazilian Marcelo Nascimento (13–0) in the 5th round.

British and Commonwealth champion

Fury vs. Chisora

On 23 July 2011, Fury faced undefeated heavyweight Derek Chisora for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles at Wembley Arena in London. Although Chisora was aged 27 and Fury 22 years old, both men went into the fight with a record of 14–0. Despite Fury's superior size and reach, Chisora was the favourite. After 12 hard-fought rounds Fury won via unanimous decision 117–112, 117–112, and 118–111, with the fight shown live on free-to-air Channel 5. Promoter Mick Hennessy said the fight peaked at around 3 million viewers.

Miscellaneous fights

On 17 September 2011, Fury fought 32-year-old fringe contender Nicolai Firtha (20–8–1, 8 KOs) in a non-title bout at the King's Hall, Belfast. Firtha took the fight on two weeks' notice. The opening two rounds were dominated by Fury. In round 3, Firtha landed a big punch which looked to trouble Fury. Fury regained control of the fight by the next round and forced the referee to stop the fight at 2 minutes, 19 seconds on round 5. Fury admitted he got caught flush, "He caught me with a good punch and I had to come back from it." The fight averaged 1.03 million viewers on Channel 5.

Fury returned to the ring on 12 November at the Event City in Trafford Park, Manchester to defend his Commonwealth heavyweight title against undefeated Canadian heavyweight champion Neven Pajkic (16–0, 5 KOs). Fury had an early scare after being knocked down in round 2 following a big right hand. Although Pajkic hobbled Fury again at the outset of round 3, Fury came back to knock down Pajkic twice during that round. The referee stopped the fight after the last knockdown, causing Pajkic to protest, who declared himself ready to fight on. Many at ringside thought the stoppage premature. The fight averaged 1.72 million viewers on Channel 5.

Fury vacated his British and Commonwealth belts in order to pursue a future world title match. He said to the media of his decision to vacate the belts, "I vacated the British and Commonwealth titles, which some people say are more prestigious than the Irish title, but not to me. I vacated those belts for an Irish title shot because it meant more to me. All my people are from Ireland. I was born in Manchester but I am Irish." On 14 April 2012, Fury travelled to Belfast to fight at the Odyssey Arena for the vacant Irish heavyweight title. His opponent was veteran Martin Rogan (14–2, 7 KOs). Rogan had not fought in 18 months and had not beaten an opponent with a winning record since 2009. At , Fury was fighting at the lightest weight of his professional career to date. Fury put Rogan on the canvas with a left hook in the third round. Rogan went down again in round 5 from a body shot. Rogan made it to his feet, but the bout was stopped at the request of his corner. The fight averaged 1.33 million viewers on Channel 5.

On 7 July, Fury fought for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight title against American boxer Vinny Maddalone (35–7, 26 KOs) at the Hand Arena in Clevedon, Somerset. Fury weighed , marginally lighter than the Rogan fight. Maddalone entered with a record of 4–3 in his previous seven bouts. Fury improved his record to 19–0 with 14 stoppage wins, with a fifth-round technical knockout over Maddalone. Fury controlled the fight from the onset and stunned Maddalone with a combination in the opening round. Fury continued to land heavy punches and opened a cut under his opponent's left eye in the fourth. In round 5, with Maddalone taking punches, the referee stepped in and called an end to the bout with blood streaming out of the cut under the veteran's left eye. It was the fifth knockout loss of Maddalone's professional career. In the post-fight interviews, Fury said, "I knew it was a matter of time. I actually called the referee over, he was taking some big shots. I'm still undefeated. I would like to say I'm ready for anyone in the world. Klitschkos, bring them on. Americans, bring them on. Bring on Tomasz Adamek. He's too small for me and I see an early win for me." Promoter Mick Hennessy also stated a world title fight was "two or three fights away", targeting Adamek next. The fight averaged 1.05 million viewers on Channel 5.

Rise up the ranks

Fury vs. Johnson

On 12 November 2012, it was announced that Fury would fight American world title contender Kevin Johnson (28–3–1, 13 KOs) in a WBC title eliminator at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on 1 December. Fury said, "Johnson is just the kind of opponent that I want at this stage of my career. We needed a world class fighter and we have got one." Fury won via unanimous decision over Johnson. After 12 rounds, the judges scored it 119–110, 119–108, and 119–108 in favour of Fury. Many media outlets including the BBC and ESPN dubbed the fight as a poor showing. Fury claimed he would score a good win, just as rival David Price did when he stopped Matt Skelton a night earlier, but instead eased to a decision victory. Fury, with the win, was in line to challenge for the WBC title, held at the time by Vitali Klitschko

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