Tyson Fury facts
Tyson "The Gypsy King" Fury (33-0-1, 24KO) is recognisable all over the world but BBN have found many little known facts that most fans don't know about the baby born weighing just 1lbs that grew to over six-foot-nine to rule the world.
A two-time world heavyweight champion constantly in the headlines is known for a number of things, such as his singing in the ring after fights, his dramatic trilogy with Deontay Wilder, his depression and subsequent recovery, but read on below and you will find many more incredible facts about the British boxing behemoth that you didn't know before.
He was born Tyson Luke Fury on August 12, 1988 in Manchester to parents Amber and John Fury, who hail from an Irish Traveller family. Fury's family lineage comes from Belfast and Galway; his parents emigrated to England at a young age. His paternal grandfather was from Tuam, Ireland; his maternal grandmother from County Tipperary; his mother was born in Belfast; father in Galway. The family is from Gaelic orign; their name comes from Ó Fíodhabhair, which means 'bushy eyebrows from a wood', and descendants can be traced back as far as the 12th century.
He grew up in Styal, Cheshire, around 10 miles south of Manchester. The Brit had problems gaining dual citizenship because his father's birth in Galway was not recorded civilly by the state.
His father, John, named him after Mike Tyson. The reason was that he was three months premature and weighed just 1lbs when born. The doctors gave the baby little chance of survival so John named him Tyson and the "fighter" survived the premature birth. John and Amber had lost two daughters both born prematurely prior to Tyson's birth. John said, “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. They told me there was not much hope for him. It was 1988, Mike Tyson was in his pomp as world heavyweight champion, and so I said, ‘Let’s call him Tyson’. The doctors just looked at me and smiled.”
His mother had a total of 14 pregnancies, out of which only four children survived. When Tyson was just nine-years-old, his mother gave birth to a baby girl in December 1997 and named her – Ramona. The baby sadly died within days and Tyson has talked about how that tragic experience has stuck with him ever since.
He left school at 11-years-old, joining his dad and brothers tarmacking roads.
His first boxing memory was staying up all night to watch Lennox Lewis get KO'd by huge underdog Hasim Rahman in 2011, when Tyson was just 11-years-old.
As with a lot of traveller families, the children are taught to box at an early age and Tyson can recall fighting in his neighbours garden as young as nine.
He joined Jimmy Egan's boxing gym at 14, which he proudly refers to as "the most old school in the world".
While his family were temporarily living in Torquay, a seaside town in Devon, he frequented Torbay ABC, run by coaches Mike Reardon and Darrell Asplen. He only trained there for around six months as a young teen then his family moved on again, but he still goes back to holiday in the area.
His amateur boxing record was 31-4, 26KOs.
He defeated Michael Hunter in an England vs USA International competition in 2006.
The young amateur champion tried to represent Ireland in the Olympics but failed to qualify for them due to his heritage issues, and lost out to rival David Price in the 2006 ABA finals, who went forward to represent Team GB in the Beijing 2008 Games, which is what prompted the disappointed amateur to turn pro.
He later joined his late uncle Hughie's gym in Skerton, Lancaster, who won British and Commonwealth titles together. Hughie trained his nephew for his first 17 fights, with the pair parting ways in 2011, with Tyson joining his other uncle, Peter, who won WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO world titles together in 2015. Tyson always credits his success transitioning from an amateur to professional to his uncle Hughie.
The fighting Fury family includes cousins, Hughie and Dempsey Fury; Nathan Gorman; Hosea Burton. Plus brother Roman Fury and half-brother, Tommy Fury.
Father "Gypsy" John Fury was a bareknuckle boxer and also had a stint in the pro ranks, collecting an 8-4-1 record, once fighting future WBO World heavyweight champion, Henry Akinwande.
Fury's distant relatives include Uriah Burton and Bartley Gorman, who were both considered "King of the Gypsys".
As well as the alias "The Gypsy King", Tyson has also named himself "The Furious One" and "2 Fast Fury", and fans have even titled him "The People's Champion".
After winning the unified world titles in Düsseldorf, Fury spiralled downhill and endured severe mental health problems, served a drugs ban after testing positive for cocaine, and ballooned up in weight. This was during 2016-2018, but after teaming up with trainer Ben Davison, he dropped from 28stone down to 18stone to make a dramatic comeback.
He was nominated for the 2015 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, but was faced with a petition signed by over 140,000 people requesting to disqualify him for his outspoken views on homosexuality. Still, he was placed in fourth position in the SPOTY Award. Fury, at the ceremony, apologised for whatever he had said in the past, explaining that he didn’t intent to hurt anyone.
Tyson and his wife Paris have six children of their own: sons, Prince John James (10); Prince Tyson Fury II (5); Prince Adonis Amaziah (3); and daughters, Venezuela (12); Valencia Amber (5); Athena (2). Tyson wanted to name one of his son's 'Jesus', but wife Paris put her foot down and declined his request. The married couple announced in March they are expecting their seventh child. They first met as teenage sweethearts when he was 17-years-old and Paris Mullroy was just 15. They started dating in the year 2006, then got married in 2008 at St. Peter in Chains Catholic Church in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. They have since set up their family home in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester.
Tyson became only the third heavyweight, after Floyd Patterson and Muhammad Ali, to hold the Ring Magazine belt twice.
He counts Muhammad Ali as his favourite ever boxer.
When he fought Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, he made sure not to consume anything on fight night, which caused him dehydration, but he still won the fight convincingly. He explained why, “I had good information off good resources not to touch anything in the changing rooms because they might try and drug you. I went home dehydrated before I even touched anything. I was so frightened of being drug-tested and failing the drugs test.”
His next opponent is MMA champion Francis Ngannou, set to meet in Saudi Arabia on October 28, 2023, but Tyson has shown a lot of interest in Mixed Martial Arts for many years, he even had a training session with Darren Till way back in November 2019.
The crossover star has appeared in WWE. On October 7, 2019, in an episode of RAW, he demanded an apology from Strowman, leading to the two trading insults at each other. A couple of weeks later a contract was signed for a match to be held at WWE Crown Jewel, between Fury and Strowman. Fury easily defeated Strowman by Countout in the match, and he reportedly earned around $15 million for his participation.
Despite being a big, loud, confident, colourful character, the giant boxer publicly suffers from bouts of depression, admitting that, “One minute I’m over the moon and the next minute I feel like getting in my car and running it into a wall at a hundred miles an hour.” He has also said that despite his recovery from depression and addiction “I had a long, hard battle and I continue to have a long, hard battle on a daily basis.”
He likes to play dress up. He showed up to his pre-fight press conference with Klitschko in a Batman costume and even jumped over the table to wrestle with Joker, who entered the room unexpectedly. He has also donned an Apollo Creed outfit and lucha libre wrestler suit for fights, and his formal suits have his famous saying 'Big Dosser' sewn into the patterns.
Just like Floyd Mayweather, the showman likes his fast cars and has had the following automobiles in his collection: Two Rolls Royce Phantam Series II (costing £384k each); Porsche Taycan (worth £140k); Ferrari GTC Lusso (worth over £250k); Ferrari F12; Range Rover Sport (worth around £150k); Ferrari Portofino (worth over £250k); Rolls Royce Cullinan (worth over £300k); Mercedes AMG G-Class (worth over £100k); 1993 classic Mini Cooper (worth aroud £10k); and a 1973 Bedford TK recovery truck and 2006 Vauxhall Passat! His Rolls Royce Phantom has the number plate '1TLF'.
The Man Utd fan counts Eric Cantona as his favourite all-time footballer.
Known for post-fight singsongs, Tyson has even become a recording artist! He was featured as a guest vocalist on the song “Bad Sharon” from the album “The Christmas Present” by British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams. He counts himself a Kings of Leon fan.
One of his favourite movies is The Notebook! A big film fan, he also likes Gladiator; Troy; and The Quiet Man.
Favourite actor is Robert DeNiro.
Roll of Honour
2006 World Junior Championships bronze medal
2006 English Novice Championships Champion
2006 Chemnitz City Cup Youth Champion
2007 European Junior Championships silver medal
2007 EU Junior Championships gold medal
2007 Donbass Youth Cup Final Runner-Up
2008 East Lancashire & Cheshire Divisional Champion
2008 England ABA National Champion
English heavyweight title
Commonwealth heavyweight title
British heavyweight title
Irish heavyweight title
WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight title x2
European heavyweight title
WBA 'Super' heavyweight title
IBF heavyweight title
WBO heavyweight title
IBO heavyweight title
The Ring Magazine heavyweight title x2
WBC heavyweight title
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