Despite amassing a reported fortune of around $200 million, world champion boxer Tyson Fury leads a relatively humble life outside of the ring.
He could live in a lavish mansion in Los Angeles, Paris or London but instead opts for the sleepy English seaside town of Morecambe.
Fury recently upgraded from a $965,000 pad to an estimated $3m family home nearby to better accommodate the six children he has with teenage sweetheart turned wife Paris.
Tyson Fury vs Dillian Whyte on Sunday April 24 will be live and ad-free only on Stan Event. The fight can be purchased by Stan customers for $60. The ring walks for the main event are expected at 6.45am AEST with the first round bell no later than 7.10am
But the British press is full of anecdotes from Morecambe locals who praise Fury’s loyal, knockabout, down to earth lifestyle.
They say he offers to shop for his elderly neighbours while the cafe kitchen knows to cut the fat off Fury’s breakfast bacon when he is training hard for a fight.
The self proclaimed ‘Gypsy King’ says his modest way of life is all part of his travelling roots.
“People say to me: ‘why don’t you live in California or America?’ – why would I?” Fury told an ITV documentary in 2020.
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“Why would I abandon my own country for a bit of money and some fame?
“I love it. I would never leave Morecambe. It’s true beauty. If the weather was better, every house here would be a million quid.”
During his rise to stardom, Fury lived on a caravan on his father John’s land.
One of his most extravagant purchases was a $290,000 Ferrari while he is known for his colourful fashion choices.
THE GYPSY KING’S INTRIGUING BACKSTORY
Fury and his wife both come from travelling community stock.
Fury was born premature and underweight in Manchester in 1988 and his family feared the worst at one stage.
Father John said he named Fury after boxing icon Mike Tyson because it was the “only name fit” for someone who had “fought so hard to be a person living in this world.”
Fury left school at 11 and was in regular scraps throughout his youth.
In a 2016 interview he opened up about the abuse he copped due to his heritage.
“No one wants to see a gypsy do well,” he claimed.
“I am a gypsy and that’s it. I will always be a gypsy, I’ll never change. I will always be fat and white and that’s it. I am the champion, yet I am thought of as a bum.”
Fury’s father was a fighter of some renown while he is also related to famous bare knuckle boxers Uriah Burton and Bartley Gorman.
“Boxing is a key element of the travelling culture,” Fury told the BBC in 2014.
“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. To be a good fighting man is one of the best things you can ever be in life.”
In 2020, Fury paid tribute to his heritage by purchasing a gold-plated gypsy caravan.
“Why be ashamed of what you really are? Tyson will always be a gypsy no matter what he does,” his father told ITV.
“He’ll be fancy and better than a lot of gypsies but he’s still a gypsy.”
MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS, BATTLE WITH SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Fury shed the tough guy cape in 2019 with frank revelations about his mental health issues in an interview on The Rich Eisen Show.
“I was on the verge of suicide,” Fury said.
“That’s when I’d have quit. But I didn’t quit on myself and I didn’t quit on the world. That’s why I’m back here to tell the story…. life’s hard. Nothing’s ever going to hit you as hard as life will. And anyone who suffers from mental health problems, it is a silent killer. It kills more people every year than most other things.”
Fury said he was raised in a family that didn’t talk about emotions and mental wellbeing.
“You’re thinking heavyweight champion of the world, guy who’s on top of everything, he must be happy, right? But then I wasn’t. There wasn’t a day that I woke up that I didn’t pray for death. I had everything to be happy for, but every day was grey and dark.”
He elaborated on the darker side of his past in Thursday’s press conference to promote Sunday’s (AEST) world title fight against Dillian Whyte.
“A druggie, an alcoholic, all the rest of the stuff I am not ashamed of,” Fury said.
“It’s a part of who I am.”
A FURIOUS FIGHT HISTORY
Fury has a near impeccable professional boxing record with 31 wins including 22 knockouts and just one draw from 32 fights.
That sole blemish, if you can call it that, was a stalemate against American Deontay Wilder in 2018.
The pair went on to fight twice more in a famed trilogy, with Fury winning both in 2020 and 2021 to cement his legendary world champion status.
The 2021 fight in particular was rated by experts and fans as one of the sport’s greatest.
“I’ve been in this business 57 years promoting fights and I have to say I’ve truly never seen a heavyweight fight as magnificent as this,” hall of fame promoter Bob Arum said.
Fury also defeated the great Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.
He claims to be in the best shape of his illustrious career but has toyed with retirement in the buildup to the Whyte fight.
His father John, however, has disputed that talk, stating that he expects his son to stay in the fight game until he is 40.
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CONNECTIONS WITH DOWN UNDER
Fury is mates with Kiwi boxers Joseph Parker and Sonny Bill Williams with the former living and training with him in England for the last year.
Williams, meanwhile, got up close and personal with the ‘Gypsy King’ after being invited into camp in England to prepare for his first round knockout of Barry Hall.
“My time with Tyson, getting to see how great he is as a boxer up close, I don’t see anyone coming close to him in the heavyweight division at the moment,” Williams told Nine.
Williams also recounted his tough training sessions with Fury in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.
“When we were running, Tyson was saying: ‘there have been a lot of boxers that have come and done this hill and stopped. If you stop, this sport isn’t for you’,” Williams recalled.
“Tyson Fury, I can’t speak highly enough of him, he’s a real gentleman. He’s a great guy and welcomed me into his little crew like I was family…
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“(Parker) rang me and said, ‘I’ve spoken to Tyson… he said bring your boxing gear tonight’. He said: ‘if Sonny wants to box, let’s box.’ We rocked up to the gym and we were just into it – body sparring, heavy bag work and there was no place to hide.
“He’s there looking at you, watching your form, correcting me. It blew my mind how fit he is for such a big man. He’s 132kg but he moves around the ring like a lightweight, has got fast hands. It showed me the levels. I got to see how the best in the world do it… to go over and train with the best heavyweights in the world, I had to take that chance.”
LINK TO CRIME BOSS, OTHER CONTROVERSIES
The buildup to Fury’s blockbuster fight in front of 94,000 at Wembley has been dominated by his links to Ireland’s Kinahan crime family.
Kinahan was pictured with Fury in February in Dubai and has attempted to organise fights for him in the past.
“The man’s been a boxing fan, there’s not much more I can say,” Fury said.
“There’s not much more of a relationship, there is none.”
Fury’s other controversies have included a backdated two year doping ban after fighting in 2015 while he had to reapply for his British boxing licence after it was suspended because of drug use and medical issues.
He has also been lambasted for sexist and homophobic views.
After beating Klitschko in 2015, Fury was nominated for the illustrious BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.
More than 140,000 people signed a petition demanding he be ineligible because of his offensive remarks and Fury eventually finished fourth in the voting.
Fury has since apologised for his controversial comments.
“I said some things which may have hurt some people, which as a Christian man is not something I would ever want to do. Though it is not an excuse, sometimes the heightened media scrutiny has caused me to act out in public and then my words can get taken out of context. I mean no harm or disrespect to anyone and I know more is expected of me as an ambassador of British boxing and I promise in future to hold myself up to the highest possible standard.”
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