Tyson Fury’s Road to Redemption: A Boxing Revelation
In the summer of 2016, Tyson Fury bound with his Ferrari F12, found himself driving at 190mph down a stretch of the British motorway in the hope of leaving the planet in a fiery inferno — his life had spiralled out of control and suicide seemed the only option.
The British boxer had reached rock bottom and decided to throw in the towel for the final time. A bridge was in sight and his foot securely on the pedal. The bridge drew closer. Fury’s foot remained glued to the metal accelerator. The enigmatic fighter was moments away from the dark void he craved — and then a voice.
Fury heard his children, he heard his family and experienced an out-of-body experience — the boxer watched down on his children growing up without a parent and observed them angrily converse about their father opting for the easy way out naming him a coward.
Fury’s Fall From Grace
Fury’s slippery decline came after one of the biggest highs of his career, stunning previous heavyweight champion of the world Wladimir Klitschko. The 6-foot-9 boxing genius had outboxed one of the most feared men on the planet to cement his name into boxing history books.
The ecstasy of winning the most revered boxing belt in human history was too much for the traveller, and Fury soon unearthed the demons that lay dormant for so many years. Cocaine became a regular occurrence for the talented brawler and alcohol happily accompanied the addictive powder.
Fury allowed his weight to balloon to more than 392 pounds and struggled with severe depression. The boxer had reached the upper echelons of boxing dispatching the very best in the sport — accompanying his success was a cabinet of accolades, wealth, power and a lasting legacy — but it wasn’t enough.
All this success and fame had exposed Fury’s weak underbelly and the fighter became an addict. At one point the Mancunian would drink 18 pints of larger a day, followed with whisky and a vodka chaser — finishing the evening off with pizzas and kebabs.
Fury Stripped of Boxing Belts
Tyson Fury was forced to vacate his WBO and WBA heavyweight title belts in 2016 after admitting to using cocaine to deal with depression. The troubled boxer had not fought since beating Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015 and twice deviated from rematches with the Ukrainian.
Fury, clearly devastated with the decision, and on reflection thought it was best for boxing, saying it’s “only fair and right” to step to one side and let the show go on. Ever since defeating Klitschko in Germany, Fury had seemingly self-engineered one of the greatest collapses in modern sports history.
Within weeks of losing his straps that he fought so valiantly to achieve, Fury started to run his mouth and his archaic sexist and homophobic remarks led to a petition to remove his name from the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year. The man had started to freefall without a parachute.
Role Model
The self-styled “Gypsy King” is a role model for the traveller community, helping disparage a culture that has been subjected to huge prejudice. The boxer’s heritage is that of an Irish traveller, both parents belong to this group which has been used for decades as a scapegoat.
Fury is a member of this persecuted ethnic minority group in Ireland known as ‘Irish Travellers.’ Though the idiosyncratic boxer is born in England, he has come to be known as the Gypsy King, a term and name which is considered offensive. This is the name Fury coined and utilised as armour, shielding the bigotry and transforming the slur into a weapon.
Despite Fury’s repugnant views and comments in the past, the man is a figurehead for his community.
He has battled adversity and addiction, fought mental health, fought men physically, all-the-while defending his travelling brotherhood. It’s a rarity to find a man who’s turned his afflictions into a driving force for good.
I for one don’t condone in any way the homophobic and sexist views the boxer has expressed, but I do respect the man he has become after all the widespread odium.
The man’s name summarises his life — Tyson — a name from boxing’s past which evokes mayhem and disorder — and his surname Fury — which conjures up a sense of maverick rage.
The Gypsy Boxing Style
Tyson Fury is regarded as one of the most talented boxers of a generation, his silky footwork and expansive punching is awe-inspiring. Tyson Fury’s height is another feather in his cap, measuring a towering 6-foot–9 (2.06m). This huge height advantage doesn’t mar his speed astonishingly, most commonly in boxing, the larger you are, the slower you are.
Fury has a reach of 85 inches and despite his large frame and bulk, the man can move like a middleweight. Another string to his bow is his ability to make life difficult for his opponents. When foes come on the attack, the northerner’s lengthy arms jab at them, forcing them to retreat completely disturbing a fighter’s equilibrium.
The man may have a history of mental health but his mental strength in the ring is unparalleled. He simply cannot be intimidated and is unaffected by childish mind games. The irony is the boxer mirrors the games at an expert level.
Fury Mounting a Comeback
Tyson Fury had not had a professional fight in 32-months and Sefer Seferi was the man he had to go through for the beginning of his revival. Fury’s quest to regain his heavyweight title began with a kiss to the crowd, a brawl in the stands, and a plethora of textbook Fury showboating.
Fury’s tongue was out more than it was in, the Briton performed various acrobatics in the ring and after a skirmish erupted in the crowd, Fury seemed more focused on the drunken altercation than his opponent. “If I am brutally honest I could have done him in the first 10 seconds,” Fury said later. “But what good would that have done me?”
The boxing giant started going through the gears in the fourth round and Seferi had little response. The Albanian’s corner quickly threw in the towel after Fury provided a glimpse of his previous raw talent. The crowd’s disappointment was as transparent as the ropes surrounding the ring — as a torrent of boos rained down on the two boxers.
The Final Puzzle Piece In Francesco Pianeta
The final impediment to Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder was the job of dispatching Francesco Pianeta. On a wet Saturday night in Windsor Park, Belfast, Fury turned on the style and recorded a comfortable unanimous- decision victory.
Fury looked marginally better than his tune-up fight with Sefer Seferi and his stamina held up throughout the fight as he coasted to a simple win. Swiftly after Fury’s victory, Deontay Wilder appeared and a predictable face-to-face confrontation commenced. The altercation was far more exciting than Fury’s anticipated 100–90 point win over Pinaneta.
The Pianeta fight lacked drama and excitement and many fans jeered at the end — but Fury had chalked up two wins and shed some more ring rust. Fury was prepared for the main event.
Deontay Wilder vs Tyson Fury
Fury’s moment had arrived, his two-part redemption story was upon him. The first encounter between the bitter rivals is mostly remembered for a white-knuckle final round, where Fury, who had outclassed and outboxed the heavy-handed Alabaman for the majority of the evening, went thundering down after the Bronze Bomber turned on the style slashing a right hand-left hook combination that left the Briton motionless on the canvass.
As the referee was counting the previous heavyweight champion out and Wilder was celebrating emphatically in the corner, Fury jolted to life, found his feet and concluded the fight with a flurry of punches searching for the knockout. This is what Fury believes he was placed on this earth to do — fight.
It was an extraordinary moment of unscripted drama that will endure as long as this exhilarating, barbaric trade carries on. Fury thrusting to his feet summarised his short and brilliant redemption. This was a man refusing to go down and if he did, he made sure he got back up.
December 18, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and lineal battled to a controversial split draw (113–113, 115–111 Wilder, 114–112 Fury). Fury showcased why he was the heavyweight champion, demonstrating some slick boxing. but Wilder was in possession of the single greatest weapon in the game of boxing, his show-stopping right hand.
After the result was announced, there was outrage from both camps, the two thinking they’d won it. It was clear that the two champions were to meet again and ply their trades to conclude the double affair.
Deontay Wilder vs Tyson Fury 2
The first instalment was surrounded by controversy with the two men fighting tooth-and-nail to slug out a euphoric tie. Both fighters prepared to box in the biggest fight of their careers.
The boxing world knew that Tyson Fury was special but they also knew that Deontay Wilder had a stick of dynamite in his right hand and was still a force to be reckoned with. Those who know boxing, have always held Fury as the best boxer of the generation, and aFury on top-form is very difficult to dismantle.
Fury came thundering out of his corner in the opening round, at breakneck speed, peppering Wilder with hard, unforgiving jabs, never allowing the American a foothold. The man was plying his trade at an expert level. When the traveller's bear paws landed, they landed with authority, pummeling the face of his foe with such regularity that the forgotten champion was clay to be moulded with Fury’s fists.
This performance was a work of art from the paintbrush of Fury, the man had a gameplan and utilised it to stupify the man from Alabama. Fury put Wilder to the canvass in the third round, and then with a winging body shot in the fifth, by which time Wilder was on the back foot. Fury wasted no time in the fifth, putting Wilder to the sword once more. Wilder met the canvass once again with no reluctance.
By the sixth, Wilder was leaking blood from his left ear, the man’s legs had gone and he appeared unable to fend off Fury’s relentless attacks. Wilder was a fallen giant. Referee Kenny Bayless waved it off at the 1:39 mark of the seventh after Wilder’s corner threw in the towel concerned for the former champ’s safety.
When the losing corner’s towel sailed over the ropes dropping to the feet of Fury, it set off scenes of pandemonium among the full-house crowd of 15,816 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Fury had undoubtedly completed one of the greatest comebacks in modern sports history when he turned on the style beating Deontay Wilder to regain his heavyweight of the world title, delivering a world-class performance beating his opponent with far superior skill.
Fury never lost those belts in the ring, instead, surrendering them into the heavyweight ecosphere amid his 31-month layoff, where the belts have been claimed by Britain's Anthony Joshua. Fury’s unlikely return to the summit of boxing’s prestige division was unthinkable at rock bottom. His revival puts him back at the head of the pack, his belts back in his possession and a plethora of opponents queuing up to take a shot at the king.
