Over a 16-year professional career, Tyson Fury has risen from small shows and low expectations to a shot at becoming undisputed world champion.
On Saturday evening in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, heavyweight boxing’s bureaucracy and politics will fizzle into insignificance.
A Netflix reality show and appearances in the scripted world of wrestling entertainment – combined with a compelling comeback story after battling addiction and depressions - have long since established Fury as a mainstream figure.From a leisure centre in Wigan to a Norfolk showground, the slow-burning superstar has worked his way through smaller venues into the starkest of spotlights.
At just 14 - standing 6ft 4in tall and weighing 14st – Fury towered over almost every adult in Egan’s gym in Wythenshawe, Manchester.Gold medals at the 2006 European Junior championships and the 2007 English Nationals signalled Fury’s potential as Great Britain’s Olympic selectors began to take notice.
“I was like “what?” – I’d never heard that type of talk in the amateurs. It was always so respectful, never had I come across someone that brash.”When Price sparred Fury just a few weeks later, he saw signs that his fellow Briton had the bite to back up his bark. “Fury had written a letter to the Boxing News magazine that he was going to knock me out in the ABA Championships,” Price explains. “As soon as I heard that I had a bit between my teeth and wanted to teach him a lesson.”After a failed attempt at making the Ireland team, Fury’s Olympic dream was over.
It wasn’t seven straight stoppage wins that attracted attention in the early part of his career. Instead an uppercut that glanced off journeyman Lee Swaby’s guard and into Fury’s own face became an unwanted viral moment. But Fury’s defensive skills, elusive agility and remarkable power of recovery have kept him rising and his record running. He has 34 wins from 35 professional fights, with a 2018 draw against Deontay Wilder the only slight hiccup.
Fury’s twin wins over Wilder have defined his second coming after two and a half years out of the sport wrestling with personal demons. World champion Klitschko was a clear favourite, unbeaten in 11 years and fighting with home advantage in his adopted Germany.Just hours before the opening bell, Fury complained about the softness of the ring canvas, arguing it would hinder his footwork and that Klitschko had begun wrapping his hands without a member of Fury’s team present.
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