Boxing is finally back in the media mainstream, thanks in no small measure to the current undisputed heavyweight champ of the world, Tyson Fury, aka the Gypsy King. Fury is unique, no question about that, and he has sports anchors and personalities talking boxing for the first time in a long time. He’s wildly entertaining – consider the 6’9”, 256 lb giant one part Conor McGregor, one part WWE, one part American Idol and one part Muhammad Ali.
If you missed it last Saturday night in Las Vegas, moments after dismantling the WBC champion Deontay Wilder to unite the titles, Fury broke into song, serenading his wife and the 16,000-strong crowd at the MGM Grand with a boisterous two-minute rendition of Don McLean’s American Pie, beaming from ear to ear as the crowd joined in.
But if you think Fury’s ride to the top was all glitz, glamour and smiles, you’d be sadly mistaken. Here are 10 things you may not have known about the new champ, and his wild, wild ride.
1) He was born in Wythenshawe in Manchester, England, and was just one of four children that survived childbirth after his mother had 14 pregnancies. Fury was born nearly three months premature, and he weighed less than a pound at birth.
2) His father named him after former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, for defeating the odds at birth, and promised the hospital staff that he would emulate his namesake one day and wear the heavyweight crown.
3) Fury’s nickname “Gypsy King” comes from his Irish Traveller heritage on both his mother and father’s sides.
4) His family has a strong boxing heritage, with Fury’s father John fighting bare-knuckled and unlicensed, and later as a professional, under the nickname “Gypsy” John Fury.
5) In an interview in 2014, Fury explained how he considers his Traveller heritage a key factor in him entering the sport. “Boxing is a key element of the Travelling culture,” he said. “Before anything else, you learn how to fight. Whereas in other cultures little kids will kick a ball about, we’re punching hands. When we have a dispute we’re not supposed to go to the police, we’re supposed take our shirts off, go outside and sort it out with fisticuffs.”
6) Fury fulfilled his father’s birth prophecy in November 2015 when he stunned Wladimir Klitschko to become world champion – but then went on such a dizzying downward spiral that his friends and family feared for his life.
7) Fury became addicted to cocaine and alcohol, allowed his weight to balloon to more than 385 lbs, and had struggles with severe depression. At one point he would drink 18 pints of lager a day, follow it up with whisky and vodka, and then stop off on the way home for pizzas and kebabs.
8) In October 2016, he vacated his title. He was also suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control.
9) In 2017 he accepted a backdated two-year doping ban for testing positive for elevated levels of the banned substance nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, which he claimed came from un-castrated wild boar or contaminated supplements.
10) In 2018 he told the Joe Rogan Experience podcast how he “wanted to die so bad” and described how once in 2016 he nearly deliberately drove his Ferrari into a bridge at 190mph.
Amazingly, just a few short years later the Gypsy King reigns again. I’ll keep my eye on Fury as his career and life move forward, for as he sang to his wife after defeating Klitschko, I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.
