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Tyson Fury

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Tyson Fury
Fury in 2008
Born
Tyson Luke Fury

(1988-08-12) 12 August 1988 (age 36)
Wythenshawe,
Manchester, England
Statistics
Weight(s)Heavyweight
Height6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)[1]
Reach85 in (216 cm)
StanceOrthodox
Boxing record
Total fights25
Wins25
Wins by KO18
Losses0

Tyson Luke Fury[2] (born 12 August 1988) is a British professional boxer who fights at heavyweight. In November 2015, he defeated Wladimir Klitschko to become the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring magazine unified heavyweight champion.

Having initially been denied the opportunity to fight for Ireland at the Olympic Games, he was permitted to represent both Great Britain and Ireland after tracing his family lineage to relatives in Belfast.[3][4] Fury has represented both England and Ireland as an amateur, winning the ABA championship in 2008 before turning professional later that year. Currently undefeated, he is a two-time former British and English champion, a former European, Commonwealth and Irish heavyweight champion, as well as a former WBO Inter-Continental and WBO International heavyweight champion.

Background

Born and raised in Manchester, England, Fury was born into a family of Irish Traveller heritage.[5] His paternal grandfather was from Tuam, County Galway, which is also the birthplace of his father John Fury.[6] His maternal grandmother is from County Tipperary and his mother was born in Belfast.[7][8] His family has a long history in boxing;[9] his father competed in the 1980s as "Gypsy" John Fury,[10] initially as a bare-knuckle fighter and unlicensed boxer, and then as a professional boxer.[11] He is a cousin of Irish WBO Middleweight World Champion Andy Lee[8] and heavyweight Hughie Fury.[12] Hughie's father, Peter Fury, is also Tyson's trainer.[13] He is also a distant relative of "self-styled King of the Gypsies"[14] Bartley Gorman.[15][16] His father named him "Tyson" after then-world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.[9]

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.[17] 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.[18] In another Irish match against the US, Fury won his bout by knock-out.[19]

He was forced to withdraw from the Irish national championships after officials from the Holy Trinity Boxing Club in West Belfast, the club of the then Irish amateur heavyweight champion, submitted a protest regarding his eligibility.[19][20] He won a bronze medal at the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in 2006.[1]

In England, whilst representing Jimmy Egan's Boxing Academy, he participated in the senior national championships in 2006 but was beaten by David Price 22–8.[21]

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 representing the United Kingdom.

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 for Ireland, 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.[20]

In the absence of Price (who won Olympic Bronze in Beijing) he became national champion (ABA) in 2008.[9]

Professional career

Fury vs. Chisora, Johnson, and Cunningham

On July 23, 2011 Fury faced undefeated heavyweight Dereck Chisora and defeated him via unanimous decision.

On 1 December 2012, Fury fought American world title contender Kevin Johnson (W28-L2-D1). Fury won via unanimous decision.

On 20 April 2013, Fury fought the highly ranked American former world Cruiserweight champion, Steve Cunningham (W25-L5) in his United States debut at Madison Square Garden. The bout was an IBF Title Eliminator to determine the Number 2 World Ranking, with the winner then needing to fight unbeaten Bulgarian heavyweight Kubrat Pulev for the mandatory position for a tilt at the long reigning Ukrainian world champion Wladimir Klitschko. Cunningham came into the fight on the rebound from a controversial split decision loss to Tomasz Adamek of Poland. Fury fought wildly in the first two rounds, and was floored by Cunningham in the 2nd round. However, Fury rebounded and knocked Cunningham out for the first time in his career with a right hand in the seventh round.[22]

This win gave the 24-year-old Fury a world ranking of 7 according to Boxrec,[1] a number 2 ranking according to the International Boxing Federation, 6th with the World Boxing Council, and 5th with the World Boxing Organization.[23]

Haye negotiations and fallout

Fury was due to fight David Haye[24][25] on 28 September 2013. However, Haye pulled out of the fight on 21 September after sustaining a cut, which required six stitches, above the eye during training.[26] The fight was originally postponed to 8 February 2014,[27] however, Haye was forced to pull out of the fight with a career-threatening shoulder injury, and hinted at his retirement.[28]

Fury vs. Chisora II and Hammer

Fury was due to fight rival and heavyweight contender Dereck Chisora for the second time on 26 July 2014. However, 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,[29] Fury pulled out of the fight after his uncle and former trainer Hughie Fury was taken seriously ill.[30] However, Fury and Chisora rescheduled the rematch for 29 November 2014; Fury won the rematch.

Fury then went on to face Christian Hammer on 28 February 2015, and also won the fight when the fight came to a halt in the 8th round via RTD.[31]

Title showdown with Wladimir Klitschko

In July 2015, it was confirmed that Fury would take part in a World Heavyweight title showdown with Wladimir Klitschko for WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring Heavyweight titles. Although the fight was meant to take place on 24 October 2015, Klitschko sustained a calf injury and so it was put back to 28 November 2015. For this match, he trained together with the highest ranked heavyweight kickboxers in GLORY, Rico Verhoeven and Benjamin Adegbuyi.[32]

The fight took place in Düsseldorf, Germany,[33] with Fury winning after twelve rounds by a unanimous points decision, with scores of 116–111, 115–112, 115–112.[34] On 8 December 2015, the IBF stripped Fury of his title after he had signed a rematch clause against Klitschko prior to their fight which precluded him from facing the IBF's mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov, which meant he held the IBF belt for only 10 days.[35]

Personal life

Fury and his wife Paris married in 2009.[36]

He is a supporter of Premier League football club Manchester United.[37] He is a practicing Catholic.[38][39]

In September 2015 Fury expressed a desire to run as an independent candidate to be the UK Member of Parliament for Morecambe and Lunesdale, opining that the government were too focused on immigrants and not enough on homeless people and those with drug and alcohol problems. He also suggested that Britain should leave the European Union.[40]

Controversies

In 2013 Fury told an interviewer before his first fight at Madison Square Garden that he would “hang” his own sister if she was promiscuous. That same year he was fined £3,000 for calling fellow boxers David Price and Tony Bellew "gay lovers".[41]

Shortly before winning the world titles in November 2015, Fury publicly argued that performance-enhancing drugs (which he denied taking) should be permitted in boxing and other sports. He said: "Why don't they just make drugs totally legal in sports, then everybody would be taking drugs then it would be fully fair then wouldn't it? ... It's none of my concern really but if the governing bodies want to do that then I think it would be a bit fairer because you've got all them people taking drugs and when you face a man who is not taking drugs it becomes unfair doesn't it?”[42]

After winning the titles he was controversially named as a finalist of the 2015 BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Over 100,000 people signed an online Change.org petition saying that what they saw as his homophobic and sexist views made him an unsuitable recipient for the award.[43][44] The controversy began even before the Klitschko fight, when Fury seemed to compare homosexuality and abortion to paedophilia and then attempted to play down his comments by saying they came straight from "the holy scriptures".[45] His most offending words were:

There are only three things that need to be accomplished before the Devil comes home. One of them is homosexuality being legal in countries, one of them is abortion and the other is paedophilia. So who would have thought in the 50s and early 60s that those first two would be legalised. … For me, people can say ‘oh, you’re against abortions and you’re against paedophilia, you’re against homosexuality, you’re against whatever’ but my faith and my culture is all based on the bible. The bible was written a long time ago, wasn’t it, from the beginning of time until now so if I follow that and that tells me it’s wrong, then it’s wrong for me.[46]

After the world championship fight, he stated that he had been cautious against what he claimed (without evidence) were possible cheating tactics by the Klitschko camp and he would not even drink water in the locker room post-fight because of fears that he would be drugged.[47]

He courted further controversy by stating that Olympic and world champion heptathlete, Jessica Ennis-Hill, a fellow contender for the BBC award, "slaps up good" and that "a woman’s best place is in the kitchen and on her back – that’s my personal belief." Fury responded to the controversy by denying he was homophobic and telling iFL TV that his critics could "suck my balls" - and labelled those who signed the petition as "50,000 wankers".[48][49] On 9 December, BBC bosses were fighting a frantic battle to save the Sports Personality of the Year awards, after a leading contender, Olympic athletic Greg Rutherford, threatened to pull out because of the controversy.[50]

On 8 December 2015, the SNP's John Nicolson, a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, challenged the BBC over Fury’s Sports Personality of the Year nomination.[51] On 9 December 2015, Greater Manchester Police confirmed that they are investigating an allegation of hate crime against Fury in relation to comments made about homosexuality on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme.[52]

Professional boxing record

25 fights, 25 Wins (18 knockouts, 7 decisions), 0 losses[1]
Result Record Opponent Type Round, time Date Location Notes
— — Wladimir Klitschko N/A – (12) 2016 Defending The Ring, WBO, IBO, & WBA (Super) Heavyweight titles.
Win 25–0 Wladimir Klitschko UD 12 2015-11-28 Esprit Arena, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen Won WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring Heavyweight titles.
Win 24–0 Christian Hammer RTD 8 (12), 3:00 2015-02-28 The O2 Arena, London, England Retained WBO International Heavyweight title.
Win 23–0 Dereck Chisora RTD 10 (12), 3:00 2014-11-29 ExCeL London, London, England Won European and WBO International Heavyweight titles.
Win 22–0 Joey Abell TKO 4 (10), 1:48 2014-02-15 Copper Box, London, England
Win 21–0 Steve Cunningham KO 7 (12), 2:55 2013-04-20 Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York IBF Heavyweight title eliminator.
Win 20–0 Kevin Johnson UD 12 2012-12-01 Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland WBC Heavyweight title eliminator.
Win 19–0 Vinny Maddalone TKO 5 (12), 1:35 2012-07-07 Hand Arena, Clevedon, England Won WBO Inter-Continental Heavyweight title.
Win 18–0 Martin Rogan TKO 5 (12), 3:00 2012-04-14 Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland Won Irish Heavyweight title.
Win 17–0 Neven Pajkic TKO 3 (12), 2:44 2011-11-12 Event City, Manchester, England Retained Commonwealth Heavyweight title.
Win 16–0 Nicolai Firtha TKO 5 (12), 2:19 2011-09-18 King's Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Win 15–0 Dereck Chisora UD 12 2011-07-23 Wembley Arena, London, England Won British and Commonwealth Heavyweight titles.
Win 14–0 Marcelo Luiz Nascimento KO 5 (10), 2:48 2011-02-19 Wembley Arena, London, England
Win 13–0 Zack Page UD 8 2010-12-19 Pepsi Coliseum, Quebec City, Quebec
Win 12–0 Rich Power PTS 8 2010-09-10 York Hall, London, 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 Tomáš Mrázek PTS 6 2009-09-26 The O2, Dublin, Ireland
Win 8–0 John McDermott PTS 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, London, 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, London, England
Win 4–0 Lee Swaby TKO 4 (6), 3:00 2009-03-14 Aston Events Centre, Birmingham, England
Win 3–0 Daniel Peret TKO 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 National Ice Centre, Nottingham, England Professional debut.

Major and minor titles held throughout career

  • WBA (Super) Heavyweight Champion
  • IBF Heavyweight Champion
  • WBO Heavyweight Champion
  • IBO Heavyweight Champion
  • The Ring Heavyweight Champion
  • English Heavyweight Champion (x2)
  • British Heavyweight Champion (x2)
  • Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion
  • Irish Heavyweight Champion
  • WBO Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion
  • WBO International Heavyweight Champion
  • European Heavyweight Champion

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Tyson Fury – Boxer". Boxrec.com. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  2. ^ Fury, Paris. "Tyson Fury's Passport". Paris Fury via Twitter. Paris Fury. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  3. ^ "Boxer Fury finds Irish roots". BBC Sport. 13 September 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2015.[dead link]
  4. ^ Balasundaram, Nemesha (30 July 2013). "Tyson Fury fulfils promise to 'Trafford's Frank Sinatra' for Haye walkout". The Irish Post. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  5. ^ "Tyson Fury: Fists of fury". The Independent. 11 November 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  6. ^ "Gypsy Empire". google.ie.
  7. ^ "The fight and the fury". The Irish Times. 20 April 2013.
  8. ^ a b Tyson Fury added to Dunne card[dead link], RTÉ Sport, Thursday, 17 September 2009 17:17
  9. ^ a b c Telegraph (6 December 2008). "Tyson Fury". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  10. ^ "Tyson Fury fired up by the return of his father from prison". Telegraph.co.uk. 24 January 2015.
  11. ^ Ben Dirs. "BBC Sport – Tyson Fury: I'm not interested in being a role model". BBC Sport.
  12. ^ "Tyson Fury and cousin Hughie Fury poised to become the 'new Klitschkos'". Telegraph.co.uk. 7 March 2013.
  13. ^ "Tyson Fury was unable to train for almost four weeks before Dereck Chisora bout due to virus, reveals uncle and trainer Peter Fury". Mail Online.
  14. ^ The Independent, 30 November 2011
  15. ^ Alan Hubbard (29 October 2011). "Tyson Fury: Reflections of a gypsy fighter". The Independent.
  16. ^ King of the travellers Bartley Gorman. YouTube. 1 December 2011.
  17. ^ "Tyson Fury looking for English and Irish title double". Inside Boxing. Retrieved 20 April 2009. [dead link]
  18. ^ Bernard O'Neill. "Golden year for Irish boxing. He fought under Jimmy Egans Boxing, the club that made him to the standard he is". Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  19. ^ a b David Kelly. "Tyson Fury- 'English' Tyson is causing a real fury in Dublin". Retrieved 20 April 2009.[dead link]
  20. ^ a b Stuart Brennan (19 April 2010). "Fury-ous Tyson to hit back". men.
  21. ^ Mark Vester. ""Tyson Fury- "I'd Smash David Price's Face in". Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  22. ^ "Tyson Fury wins U.S. debut". 20 April 2013. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  23. ^ "Boxing Rankings | WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF". Fightnews. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  24. ^ "No heavyweight has done what I'll do to Haye... it's going to be special, vows Fury". Daily Mail. 14 September 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  25. ^ "David Haye believes Tyson Fury's superior height and weight will count for nought in September 28 clash". Daily Telegraph. 14 September 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  26. ^ David Haye Postpones Tyson Fury Fight after Sustaining Cut www.bbc.co.uk
  27. ^ Tyson Fury Doubt Whether David Haye Fight Will Happen – Interview (contains strong language). YouTube. 29 September 2013.
  28. ^ Mike Costello (17 November 2013). "BBC Sport – David Haye advised to retire after major shoulder surgery". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  29. ^ "Tyson Fury to take on Alexander Ustinov after Dereck Chisora withdrawal", Sky Sports, 23 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014
  30. ^ "Tyson Fury pulls out of Alexander Ustinov fight after uncle taken ill", The Guardian, 26 July 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2014
  31. ^ Result: Tyson Fury forces Christian Hammer to throw in the towel after eight rounds - Sports Mole
  32. ^ Ben Adegbuyi Talks About Training With Tyson Fury Ahead of GLORY 24. Fightsports.tv (2015-10-09). Retrieved on 2015-11-29.
  33. ^ Klitschko vs Tyson Fury Fight Rescheduled 28 November 2015. Totalsportek.com (2015-10-05). Retrieved on 2015-11-28.
  34. ^ Dirs, Ben (2015) "Tyson Fury beats Wladimir Klitschko to become world champion", BBC, 29 November 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015
  35. ^ "Tyson Fury: World heavyweight champion stripped of IBF title". BBC News. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  36. ^ Paris Fury, Tyson Fury’s Wife: The Pictures you Need to See | Heavy.com
  37. ^ "Klitschko vs Fury: Manchester United, David Haye and more react to Tyson Fury's win". Sky Sports. 29 November 2015.
  38. ^ "Controversial, colourful, - and Christian - new heavyweight world champion Fury - Belfast Newsletter". Newsletter.co.uk. 30 November 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  39. ^ Gore, Will (25 November 2015). "Archive interview: Tyson Fury, the boxer who prays for his opponents". CatholicHerald.co.uk. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  40. ^ "Boxer Tyson Fury's political fight to be Morecambe MP". BBC News. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  41. ^ "Tyson Fury: the boxer who picked a fight with the world". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  42. ^ "Tyson Fury: Why don't they just make drugs totally legal in sports?". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 December 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  43. ^ "Tyson Fury petition reaches 100,000 signatures". Third Force News. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  44. ^ Cite error: The named reference autogenerated1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  45. ^ "BBC Spoty shortlist: petition to remove Tyson Fury reaches 55,000 signatures". The Guardian. 6 December 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  46. ^ "Tyson Fury has claimed he was misquoted by Oliver Holt in the interview in which equated homosexuality and abortion with paedophilia... now, we publish the audio and transcript so you can decide". Daily Mail. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  47. ^ Yahoo Sports
  48. ^ "Tyson Fury tells critics to "suck my b***s" in unbelievable ringside interview as sexism and homophobic row rumbles on". Daily Record. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  49. ^ "Tyson Fury hits back at critics after accusations of homophobia and sexism". The Independent. Retrieved 7 December 2015. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  50. ^ Adrian Rutherford. "Tyson Fury row BBC fight to save SPOTY as Olympic hero Greg threatens to quit awards over boxer's inclusion". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  51. ^ December 8th, 2015 - 12:11 am Kirsteen Paterson   (8 December 2015). "Enough is enough: SNP challenge to BBC over Tyson Fury's Sports Personality of the Year nomination". Thenational.scot. Retrieved 8 December 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  52. ^ "Tyson Fury: Police investigate complaint of hate crime". BBC News. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tyson Fury.
Achievements
Preceded by WBA Heavyweight Super Champion
November 28, 2015 – present 		Incumbent
WBO Heavyweight Champion
November 28, 2015 – present
IBO Heavyweight Champion
November 28, 2015 – present
The Ring Heavyweight Champion
November 28, 2015 – present
IBF Heavyweight Champion
November 28, 2015 – December 8 2015 		Vacant
Regional and International championships
Preceded by British Heavyweight Champion
July 23, 2011 – February 8, 2012
Vacated 		Vacant
Title next held by
David Price
Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion
July 23, 2011 – February 8, 2012
Vacated
European Heavyweight Champion
November 29, 2014 – April 17, 2015
Vacated 		Vacant
Title next held by
Erkan Teper
WBO International Heavyweight Champion
November 29, 2014 – November 28, 2015
Won world title 		Vacant
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