Tyson Fury

Tyson Fury
Statistics
Real name	Luke Tyson Fury
Rated at	Heavyweight
Height	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Reach	85 inches
Nationality	English
Born	1 June 1988 (1988-06-01) Manchester, England
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	17
Wins	17
Wins by KO	12
Losses	0
Draws	0
No contests	0

Luke Tyson Fury (born 1 June 1988) is an English professional boxer of Irish heritage who fights in the heavyweight division. Having initially been denied the opportunity to fight for Ireland at the Olympic Games, Fury is now permitted to represent both England and Ireland, after tracing his family lineage to relatives in Belfast . He has represented both his native England and Ireland at amateur level and won the ABA championship in 2008 before turning professional later that year. He is the current British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion beating Dereck Chisora for both titles on the 23 July 2011.

Background

Fury was born in Wythenshawe, Manchester, England to Irish Traveller parents. Tyson's family has a long history in boxing and bare knuckle boxing. His father is from Tuam, County Galway and his maternal grandmother is from County Tipperary.. He is a cousin of fellow Irish boxer Andy Lee. His father named him "Tyson" after the then world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.

Amateur career

As an amateur, Fury represented both Ireland and England. Fury represented Ireland three times at international level. He initially fought out 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 duel 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 USA, Fury won his bout by knock-out.

He was forced to withdraw from the Irish national championships after officials from the Holy Trinity BC in Belfast, the club of the then Irish amateur heavyweight champion, submitted a protest regarding his eligibility. He won a bronze medal at the World Junior Championships in 2006.

In England, whist representing Jimmy Egan's Boxing Academy, he participated in the senior national championships in 2006 but was beaten by David Price 22-8 despite knocking Price down.

In May 2007, he won the EU Junior Championship representing England, and later lost to Maxim Babanin in the final of the European Junior Championships. As a junior, he was ranked number three in the World behind the Russians Maxim Babanin and Andrey Volkov, but lost out to David Price for a place at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Price was chosen for the 2008 Olympic team ahead of Fury due to Olympic rules restricting each country to one boxer per weight division. Fury also unsuccessfully tried to qualify through Welsh and Irish ancestry, and attributed his failure to qualify for the Olympics as his reason for turning professional, instead of waiting for a chance that might not have come in 2012.

In the absence of Price (who won Olympic Bronze in Beijing) he became national champion (ABA) in 2008.

Fury's amateur boxing record stood at 34 fights, 30 wins, 26 wins by KO, with 4 losses.

Professional career

Fury turned professional with promoter Mick Hennessy in December 2008 and represents Great Britain and Ireland. His debut came at the Trent FM Arena in Nottingham on the undercard of the Carl Froch and Jean Pascal fight for the WBC super middleweight title. In this fight Fury defeated Hungary's Bela Gyongyosi with a first round knock-out.

His second fight was in January 2009, when Fury fought Germany's Marcel Zeller, a man with a record of 21 (20 KO) -3 losses. Fury won the fight by TKO after it was stopped in the third round. On 28 February 2009, Fury beat Russian Daniel Peret by retirement in the second round due to a large cut on Peret's eye in Norwich on the undercard of Jon Thaxton first defence of his European Lightweight title. Tyson beat Lee Swaby by retirement on 14 March 2009, at the Aston Events Centre in Birmingham on the undercard of 'Battle of Brum' where Wayne Elcock defended his British middleweight title against Matthew Macklin. On 11 April 2009, Fury beat Matthew Ellis at the York Hall by knock-out 48 seconds into the first round.

On 23 May 2009, Fury had his first eight-round fight, beating Scott Belshaw by second-round TKO. Belshaw was down twice in the first round, both times by body shots; in the second another body shot was landed by Fury which led referee Richard Davies to call a halt to the contest with 52 seconds of the second round gone.

Fury's next fight was due to take place on 12 June, however he suffered a back injury in training and the bout was cancelled. Fury returned to the ring on 18 July 2009, beating Aleksandrs Selezens in the 48th second of the 3rd round, despite the fight almost being cancelled due to Fury's continuing back injury.

The BBBofC decided that Fury would fight John McDermott for the English title before the end of November, with purse bids to be received before 8 July. The fight was confirmed for 11 September at the Brentwood International Centre.

Fury made an announcement that he wanted the win the British and Irish titles before the end of 2009, commenting that "I’d love to start out with the Irish and English titles and then move on to British, Commonwealth and European titles before going on to the world scene".

Fury felt that his fight against Belfast's Scott Belshaw should have earned him an Irish title but outlined that "I thought it was worthy of it but you need to have been in a scheduled 8 rounder to fight for the Irish belt and the Belshaw fight was my first." A number of potential opponents have been linked with a potential Irish fight, including Declan Timlin and Coleman Barrett. Fury's uncle and trainer, Hughie Fury, claimed "When Tyson was an amateur he was a member of the Smithboro club in County Monaghan but none of the Irish Super heavyweights wanted to know about him and it will be the same in the pros. He’d fight Timlin and Barrett in the same night, they’d be no match for him". Keith Walker, acting as the manager for Barrett responded "Colman will fight Tyson today and every other day. We don’t perceive Tyson Fury has any threat whatsoever".

Tyson said of the pair, "the challenge is out there for them so if they want it then we can get it on for the Irish title as soon as possible. I’ll take on any Irish heavyweight out there, all I want is the opportunity to fight for the Irish title."

On 11 September, Fury controversially beat John McDermott with a disputed points decision. Both boxers stated they would like a rematch. Many boxing observers scored the contest in favour of McDermott, and promoter Frank Warren labelled referee Terry O'Connor a "disgrace to British Boxing" after his decision.

On 26 September, Fury made his Irish debut as the undercard of Bernard Dunne versus Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym at The O2. He dedicated his performance to the memory of Darren Sutherland.

Fury vacated the English title due to a broken hand sustained in the victory over Tomas Mrazek.

On 26 June 2010, Fury faced old rival John McDermott for the vacant English heavyweight title; the fight would also be a British heavyweight title fight eliminator. Fury started the fight well, catching McDermott with solid punches. In round 6 Fury started to tire and was cut above his right eye near the end of the round after an accidental clash of heads. In round 7 Fury carried on holding McDermott, consequently he was deducted a point by referee Dave Parris. In 8th Fury floored the Essex man with a short right hook. In the 9th round Fury took advantage of a tired McDermott, dropping him another two times before the fight was called to a halt at 1 minute 8 seconds of the 9th round. All three judges had the contest 77-73 going into the ninth round. Winning this fight gave Tyson the English Heavyweight title and a chance to face unbeaten heavyweight prospect and British heavyweight champion Dereck Chisora. This fight was held on 23 July 2011. Fury started the game on the backfoot, wearing a few blows in the early rounds and proving his chin could stand up to Chisora's big left hand. But soon punched his way into the game, mainly by out thinking Chisora. Fury took the next few rounds and by the interval was on top, and had landed a big shot to Chisora's mouth causing him to bleed. From then on, Chisora's erratic style played into the hands of Fury. Fury landing cleaner punches with better combinations ultimately led to him winning by unanimous decision. After the fight, Fury was humble and thanked Jesus and his uncle, saying that Chisora was a warrior in the ring.

Fury went on to fight American Nicolai Firtha at the King's Hall, Belfast, prevailing by TKO when the referee stopped the contest in the fifth round to save Firtha from taking any more punishment.

Fury put his commonwealth title on the line against previously undefeated Canadian Neven Pajkic. The fight took place in Fury's hometown City of Manchester on 12 November.

He was knocked down for the first time in his career in the second round by Neven Pajkic on 12 November 2011, but ultimately won the fight by technical knockout in the third round, knocking down his opponent twice.

Professional boxing record

17 Wins (12 knock-outs, 5 decisions), 0 Losses, 0 Draws
Res.	Record	Opponent	Type	Round	Time	Date	Location	Notes
Win	17–0	Neven Pajkic	TKO	3 (12)		2011-11-12	EventCity, Manchester, England	Retained Commonwealth heavyweight title. Fury knocked down for 1st time in his career in round 2.
Win	16–0	Nicolai Firtha	TKO	5 (8)		2011-09-18	King's Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Win	15–0	Dereck Chisora	UD	(12)		2011-07-23	Wembley Arena, Wembley, London, United Kingdom	Won British & Commonwealth heavyweight titles.
Win	14–0	Marcelo Luiz Nascimento	KO	5 (10)	2:48	2011-02-19	Wembley Arena, Wembley, London, United Kingdom
Win	13–0	Zack Page	UD	8 (8)		2010-12-19	Pepsi Coliseum, Quebec City, Canada
Win	12–0	Rich Power	PTS	8 (8)		2010-09-10	York Hall, Bethnal Green, England
Win	11–0	John McDermott	TKO	9 (12)	1:08	2010-06-25	Brentwood Centre, Brentwood, England	Won vacant English heavyweight title. British heavyweight title Eliminator.
Win	10–0	Hans-Joerg Blasko	TKO	1 (8)	2:14	2010-03-05	Huddersfield Sports Centre, Huddersfield, England
Win	9–0	Tomas Mrazek	PTS	6 (6)		2009-09-26	The O2, Dublin, Ireland
Win	8–0	John McDermott	PTS	10 (10)		2009-09-11	Brentwood Centre, Brentwood, England	Won English heavyweight title.
Win	7–0	Aleksandrs Selezens	TKO	3 (6)	0:48	2009-07-18	York Hall, Bethnal Green, England
Win	6–0	Scott Belshaw	TKO	2 (8)	0:52	2009-05-23	Colosseum, Watford, England
Win	5–0	Matthew Ellis	KO	1 (6)	0:48	2009-04-11	York Hall, Bethnal Green, England
Win	4–0	Lee Swaby	RTD	4 (6)	3:00	2009-03-14	Aston Events Centre, Birmingham, England
Win	3–0	Daniel Peret	RTD	2 (6)	3:00	2009-02-28	Norwich Showground, Norwich, England
Win	2–0	Marcel Zeller	TKO	3 (6)	2:50	2009-01-17	Robin Park Centre, Wigan, England
Win	1–0	Bela Gyongyosi	TKO	1 (6)	2:14	2008-12-06	Trent FM Arena, Nottingham, England	Professional debut.

External links

• Professional boxing record for Tyson Fury from BoxRec

Achievements
Preceded by Dereck Chisora	British Heavyweight Champion July 23, 2011 – 8 February 2012 Vacated	Vacant
	Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion July 23, 2011 – 8 February 2012 Vacated