Tyson Luke Fury is a British professional boxer. He is a two-time heavyweight world champion, having held the WBC, The Ring magazine and lineal titles since defeating Deontay Wilder in February 2020; previously he held the unified WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO, The Ring, and lineal titles after defeating Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.
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Early life
Tyson Luke Fury was born on 12 August 1988 in the Wythenshawe area of Manchester to Irish parents Amber and John Fury, and was raised in a house in Styal. Fury was born three months premature and weighed 1 pound His father, John, named him Tyson after Mike Tyson, who was heavyweight world champion at the time. 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. He decided on Tyson as he was a fighter and survived the premature birth.
Amateur boxing career
As an amateur, Fury represented both England and Ireland. Fury represented Ireland three times at international level. He was based at of the Holy Family Boxing Club in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and later switched to the Smithboro Club in County Monaghan in the Republic of 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.
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, 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, Daniil Peratyakto, Lee Swaby, Matthew Ellis, Scott Belshaw and Aleksandrs Selezens all via knockout within 4 rounds.
Rise through the ranks
On 12 November 2012, it was announced that Fury would fight American world title contender Kevin Johnson 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.
European heavyweight champion
Fury was due to fight rival and heavyweight contender Dereck Chisora for the second time on 26 July 2014, for the European and once again the British heavyweight title. On 21 July, Chisora was forced to pull out after sustaining a fractured hand in training. Belarusian Alexander Ustinov was lined up as Chisora’s replacement in the bout scheduled to take place at the Manchester Arena, Fury pulled out of the fight after his uncle and former trainer Hughie Fury was taken seriously ill.
Unified heavyweight world champion
In July 2015, it was confirmed that Fury would fight Wladimir Klitschko in a world heavyweight title showdown, for the WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO, Lineal and The Ring heavyweight titles. Initially scheduled for 24 October 2015, the fight was postponed to 28 November 2015 after Klitschko sustained a calf injury. For this match, Fury trained with the highest ranked heavyweight kickboxers in GLORY, Rico Verhoeven and Benjamin Adegbuyi.
Comeback trail
On 10 January 2018, Fury announced he would be re-applying for his boxing licence through the BBBofC. An interview took place between Fury and BBBofC on 19 January, where the latter agreed to re-instate Fury as long as he sent them up-to-date medical records after visiting a psychologist. Fury said a motivation on his return was Deontay Wilder. He said I couldn’t do it, he said definitely not Tyson Fury. He’s done.
ESPN deal
After the fight with Wilder, Fury secured a five-fight contract with ESPN and Top Rank worth £80 million. He made his return to the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas against the WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight champion Tom Schwarz on 15 June 2019. This was Fury’s first fight in Las Vegas. Fury weighed 263 pounds, compared to Schwarz’s 235 1⁄2 pounds. He was in complete control of the fight, peppering the undefeated Schwarz in round one before finishing him in the second round by TKO, to take Schwarz’s WBO Inter-Continental title.
Wilder trilogy
Fury made an appearance in an angle on WWE’s debut of SmackDown on Fox on 4 October 2019. He stared down Braun Strowman during his match, and Strowman later threw one of his opponents, Dolph Ziggler, at Fury. After the match, Fury jumped the barricade, but was stopped by security. The WWE announced that Fury would be given an open mic for the following episode of Raw. Fury appeared in the last segment of the 7 October 2019 episode of Raw and demanded an apology from Strowman as the two traded insults. They then had a “brawl” which was separated by some of Strowman’s fellow professional wrestlers.
Personal life
Fury met his wife Paris when she was 15 and he was 17. Like Fury, Paris is a practising Catholic and was raised in an Irish traveller family. They began dating the year after they met, and married in 2008 at St. Peter in Chains Catholic Church in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. The couple have five children together: three sons named Prince Tyson Fury II, Prince Adonis Amaziah, and Prince John James; and two daughters named Venezuela, and Valencia Amber. When Fury was asked why all of his sons had the first name Prince, he said, I’m a king and they’re princes until they earn their rightful name.