Via Ken Hissner: At 6:09 Tyson “King of Gypsy” Fury has been fighting for his life since the day the one-and-a-half pound boy was born two and a half months premature.
His father John Fury said: “The doctors told me his chances of survival were low, and that I had lost two daughters just like the one who was born prematurely,” said John Fury, father his said. “They told me there was not much hope for him. It was 1988 and Mike Tyson was his favorite as the world heavyweight champion, so I said “Let’s call him Tyson!” The doctors just looked at him and smiled.
Fury comes from a family of boxers that includes his ‘Gypsy’ father John Fury, brothers Young and Tommy, uncles Hugh Fury and Peter Fury, and cousins Phil and Hughie. The Furys are Irish tourists.
Fury is 31-4 with 26 knockouts in amateur hands. He won his first minor title at the age of 18 in Germany in 2006. In 2007, he won the European Union Junior Championship Gold Medal in Warsaw, Poland.
Fury turned pro in 2008 and won his first seven fights in stoppage time before beating John McDermott 25-5. He will then stop his next two opponents and in a rematch, against McDermott, he will stop him for nine innings.
In 2011, Fury won his first title in England and the Commonwealth by defeating Derek “War” Chisora, 14-0, to improve to 15-0. Four stops followed and then beat Kevin Johnson, 28-2-1, from the US, over 12 innings.
In Fury’s next fight in April 2013, he made his US debut at Madison Square Garden against IBF Cruiserweight world champion Steve “USS” Cunningham, 25-5. Fury was knocked out in the second round but returned to the Cunningham knockout in the seventh round. I remember he put his left forearm in front of Cunningham’s eyes and went up with a punch to the chin and he went down and it was all over at 2:55 of the seventh inning. It was the only time in Cunningham’s career that he lost in injury time.
In November 2014 in a rematch against Chisora, 20-4, for the European title, he withdrew in the tenth round. Next, he stopped Christian Hammer, 17-3, a Romanian, from fighting Germany in a WBO International title defense for eight innings in a knockout.
This helped Fury win the world title with IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO world champion Wladimir “Dr. Steelhammer” Klitschko, 64-3, with a score of 115-112 twice and 116-111 in 12 rounds in Germany in 2015, improving to 25-0.
Fury won’t be fighting again for thirty months due to mental health issues and won’t return to the ring until June 2018, stopping Switzerland’s Sefer “The Real Deal” Seferi, 23-1, after four rounds. .
Two months later, Fury stopped a fight against Italian-born Francesco Pianeta, 35-4-1, winning all ten rounds. This gave him a second chance at a world title against WBC and Olympian world champion Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder, 40-0, at the Staples Center, in California. Despite being knocked out in the ninth and twelfth rounds, Fury made it through twelve rounds and earned a draw.
It was more than a year before Wilder gave Fury a rematch with both scoring a couple of goals. Fury did this in the US against two undefeated opponents Tom Schwarz, 24-0, from Germany, and Otto Wallin, 20-0, of Sweden.
This set up a February 2020 rematch against Wilder in Las Vegas, Nevada. After six rounds, Fury took the lead with all cards 58-53 and 59-52 twice stopping Wilder in the seventh round with a score of 1:39.
It will be twenty months in October 2021 before Fury and Wilder’s third showdown in Las Vegas and after ten rounds, Fury leads 94-92, 95-92 and 95-91. In the eleventh inning, Wilder had a reverse header when referee Russell Mora wisely removed it.
In Fury’s next and most recent bout back to the UK in four years, he stopped WBC champion Interim against Great Britain’s Dillian “The Body Snatcher” Whyte, 28-2, in the third round. six before all the scorecards after five rounds.
This improved Fury’s record to 32-0-1 with 23 kills. He announced his retirement after this match, which very few people including me doubted.
On the 20th of this month, WBA, WBO and IBF world champion Oleksandr Usyk, 19-0 with 13 kills in a rematch with Anthony “AJ” Joshua, 24-2 with 22 knockdowns.
Fury in my opinion is waiting for a winner for all four titles in 2023. Is he the most exciting boxer right now? Grabbing the microphone in the ring and singing was just one of the things Fury did. In my opinion he is good for the boxer, how about you?
