John Fury insists a rival fan "had to have it". Photo / Getty Images
John Fury insists a rival fan "had to have it". Photo / Getty Images
John Fury, the colourful and controversial father of heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury, holds as much fascination for fight fans as his son.
And so it proved again on the first day of activities building up to the undisputed heavyweight fight with Oleksandr Usyk, as the former boxer was left bleeding from his forehead after an altercation with members of the opposition entourage.
Despite Fury Snr’s noise around fight weeks, “Big John” insists that he finds it peculiar that there is such interest in him. “Why are they fascinated with me? I ain’t done much, but I am outspoken and I do let go in full flight,” the 59-year-old explained in an exclusive interview with Telegraph Sport, which took place before Monday’s fracas.
But there is no getting away from Fury’s interventions. Asked if there is anything he regrets in his life, Fury Snr replied: “Good question. One thing I should have done is a lot more thinking before acting. [There’s] the obvious...” In 2011, Fury was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for gouging a man’s eye out in a brawl. He was handed an 11-year sentence, and served time until February 2015.
“Sometimes you can make a decision too quick and that was my biggest downfall, but my father used to tell me that every day. He said, ‘son, you react too quick, you’re not giving things enough thought. You’re jumping in’. I’ve changed, but it’s all too late in life.
“I’ve had to, because I’ve got to bite my lip every day.”
Born in Tuam, Galway, into a family of Irish Traveller heritage, he has spent much of his life in Lancashire and is descended from “10 generations of bare-knuckle fighters”.
Fury Snr, who is built like a barn door, had a professional boxing career spanning eight years, from 1987 to 1995, and had 13 bouts. But there were bare-knuckle fights too.
He has an unbridled passion around his sons when they are in camp, whether it be Tyson or Tommy, the latter a fledgling fighter who came to prominence after a stint on the reality television series Love Island. Tommy Fury has gone on to fight influencers Jake Paul and KSI and is already a multi-millionaire.
Father Fury describes his antics – including criticising the media for their coverage of Tyson’s world title triumph over Wladimir Klitschko, headbutting and punching a Perspex screen when Tommy fought KSI, or ripping off his shirt to get to Jake Paul – as demonstrations of “passion”. Yet moments later, Fury Snr can be the calmest man in the room.
John Fury and his son Tyson as they prepare to face Oleksandr Usyk. Photo / Getty Images
“I’m passionate about everything that I do, even if it’s just painting the walls in my house,” Fury Snr explained. “I want to get it done, blasted off. It’s the same with anything, you are what you are. I’m an outspoken man, I wear my heart on my sleeve.
“I say it how it is and in today’s world there aren’t enough people who say it how it is, ‘cause they’ve got to think of the job, they’ve got to think of what other people think... I’m not interested in that because money is not my forte. I’ve got a roof over my head, I’ve got an old car to drive, I’ve got a few pounds in my pocket, I’ll say what I want to say.”
Fury Snr “drives an old Mercedes, an old saloon - a diesel one, bought in ′92″ and has a penchant for dealing in cars.
“I’m not here to impress anyone. I’m just supporting my sons, and having a son like Tyson who’s a multi-world champion, the best in the world, is incredible. And then there’s Tommy, a very successful young man, in 10 bouts, worldwide fame. Other people might have a nice Range Rover, they might have a nice house, but they’ve not got what I’ve got – and that’s sons like these are. I’ve got six of them, they’re all fighters, every one of them can look after themselves. I’m a lucky man in a lot of ways.”
Fury Snr was brought up in an 18ft x 6ft (about 5.5m x 1.8m) caravan with three brothers, all large men, which he describes as “happy times”. He goes on to say “it was tough in one way but there was honesty”. He went out selling doormats as a young man, his father instructing him to sell 50 before he came home.
The things that keep Fury Snr grounded are time in the country alone “living the old ways, with a fire, living off the land” and being “guided a lot by our lord and saviour Jesus Christ”.
Fury Snr explains: “I mention him because without him nothing is possible, he and faith could move a mountain and I always knew that because when I was boxing I used to think, ‘oh not again’. But I needed the money, the kids needed feeding.
“I thought I don’t need this today but I’ve got to do it, and at the end of it when I had my last fight and it didn’t turn out too well because I had to get in the bloody ring with an athlete, you get yourself damaged. I was walking back to the dressing room, despondent, I was thinking to myself, ‘you know what, maybe one day I’ll have a son that can give it his best shot...’”
Then Tyson was born. “When Tyson was born he nearly died, he was only a pound in weight, and when I saw him – I put it in my book – it was like a warm feeling. It was like the presence of God was there when I was looking at him. I thought, ‘special’. When his own grandad Burton saw him – and the man’s long gone now – he said to me, ‘he’ll be a great man one day’. Nobody knew how great, but now we’re going to see the best there’s ever been, we’ll see the best Tyson Fury that’s ever been...”
Like Tyson, Fury Snr can be tender at times, espousing wisdom, and then suddenly ready for war. “The Furys are fighting men,” he adds. “They’ve been brought up that way and they will always be that.”
After the brouhaha had died down on Monday, Fury told one online channel: “It’s testosterone, isn’t it? And I’m full of it. From me boots to the top of me head... it could have been worse. I could have hit him with an uppercut and a right hand and put him into the promised land.”
You suspect that when one of John Fury’s sons is fighting, it will never be any different.
