The Gypsy King Tyson Fury

There’s nothing the Regtransfers editorial team likes more than a good exclusive. Regular readers will know that we are also boxing fans. With those facts in mind, you can probably imagine our excitement when we got the opportunity to spend some time with WBC World Heavyweight Champion, and reality TV star, Tyson Fury.

We visited Tyson at his gym near Morecambe FC’s Mazuma Mobile Stadium in Lancashire. We supplied him with a new personal registration for his wife, Paris, so this seemed like a good time to ask him about his interest in personal number plates. Paris’s new 1 PF number is not the first the family has owned. In fact, Tyson has been buying plates for a while.

“Yeah, I have. I’ve been collecting them for the last, what, 10 or 15 years. I store them away and, every now and again, I put them on a little motor.” Tyson’s “little motor” of the day is a Mercedes G-Class bearing his 1 TLF plates. It could just as easily have been a Range Rover, a Rolls-Royce or a Ferrari bearing one of his other plates, 2 TLF and 88 GK.

“They’re the ultimate ones for me. I bought 88 GK because it has my year of birth and GK for my Gypsy King nickname. I thought it was fitting. It looks good on a nice car and I’m very happy.”

Now Paris also has her own personal registration, will Tyson be thinking about buying plates for his children? After all, eldest daughter Venezuela is now 14 and so could be driving in another three years. “A lot of our kids have the same initials as us,” says Tyson, “so they can use ours when they’re old enough.”

He’s right. All his sons share the first name Prince: Prince John James, Prince Tyson II and Prince Adonis Amaziah, so any of them could borrow mum’s new 1 PF registration. When the time comes, however, daughters Venezuela, Valencia and Athena may need to persuade dad to go shopping for more plates.

Tyson has explained in previous interviews how the couple’s sons’ names tie into his Gypsy King mythos and it’s simple: “I’m a king and they’re princes!”

Heritage

Tyson and Paris share common origins in the Irish traveller community: a heritage of which Tyson is proud, hence the nickname. Tyson has been vocal about the discrimination faced by gypsies in the UK and in an interview with Boxing News, he said “We’re nothing in this society. We’re considered as being no better than dirt on people’s shoes.”

Tyson’s father, John, is from Co. Galway, while his mother, Amber, was born in Belfast to a mother from Co. Tipperary. Tyson has described himself as having Irish blood and a British heart. In fact, earlier in his career, he vacated the British and Commonwealth titles in order to fight for the Irish title.

Despite the variant spelling, Tyson Fury is reportedly related to famous Irish folk musicians The Fureys, including singer and virtuoso uilleann piper Finbar Furey, who appeared in the movie Gangs of New York. Perhaps that goes some way to explaining Tyson’s own love of singing, be it ‘Sweet Caroline’, ‘American Pie’ or ‘The Galway Shawl’. There is no shortage of video clips featuring Tyson exercising his surprisingly capable vocal abilities. It’s a striking juxtaposition, that capacity to deliver both a devastating punch and a wistful, melodic ballad.

Netflix

Champion boxers appear on TV all the time. Tyson Fury, however, has gone far beyond trading jibes with opponents at press conferences. Tyson, Paris and the rest of the family have now starred in their very own hit reality TV show, Meet the Furys. This isn’t the first time the Furys have been the focus of a documentary series: in 2020, ITV aired Tyson Fury: The Gypsy King, a three-part show that showed the Furys as Tyson prepared for his rematch against Deontay Wilder.

The new show, produced by Netflix, is on a different scale. The nine-episode series proved hugely popular with fans and was widely praised for not ducking the subject of Tyson’s well-documented mental health struggles.

Of course, you can’t please everyone and some critics, such as The Guardian’s sneering Jack Seale, seemed dissatisfied to see a different side of Tyson Fury, apparently lamenting the absence of melodrama to hold the columnist’s short attention span. Still, it’s the viewers that matter and the viewers did not disappoint.

“Eight days at number one,” Tyson says, happily. “Eight days released, eight days on top of the world. It seems to be whatever I touch turns to solid gold. You’d better not get too near me: if I touch you, you might turn to gold!”

Joking aside, how did he find the process, with cameras following the family around?

“It was an experience but I’d had an experience like it before. In 2019 I filmed an ITV documentary, so that was the first taste. The Netflix one was like the next level as there were so many more cameras and so much more stuff. It went on a lot longer as it was filmed for about eight or nine months of 2022. It’s interesting, a real eye-opener, to see what goes on in these TV shows.” When we observe that the children seemed able to take the whole thing in their stride quite naturally, Tyson agrees.

“They’ve always been around fame, though. They’ve been brought up in a crazy, mad household where dad’s always on television, so they don’t know anything different.”

Next generation

Considering that unorthodox environment with a famous father, an increasingly well-known mum and fairly frequent media intrusion, have Tyson and Paris had to be strict?

“I didn’t have any sisters, so I don’t have any examples to lead by. For me it is a concern that, as a parent, I need to be doing a good job. Boys can be allowed to do what they’re going to do and spread their wings. For me, I need to keep an eye on the girls because they’re my princesses.”

Does Tyson think his boys will follow in their father’s footsteps and become boxers?

“It’s difficult to follow in a legend’s footsteps. If you look at all these boxers, footballers or any big sports star of the past, it’s difficult for the sons to emulate the same success as their fathers. It’s difficult because they’re always being compared to their fathers or their uncles or whoever it might be. I see now with my brother, Tommy: he’s a reality star boxer as well but they try and compare him to me and it’s unfair, do you know what I mean? Everyone’s got their own path that they’ve got to walk down.”

Choices

Although Tyson doesn’t necessarily expect his sons to follow his path, there would be precedence should they do so as Tyson’s own father, John, was a boxer. Fury Sr fought in both the bareknuckle tradition of the traveller community and as a licensed boxer.

In a way, one could say that Tyson’s own course was set from birth. As a tiny premature baby, he had to fight for his life. He was born into a family that came from a tough community with that long tradition of pugilism. His father even named him after the American heavyweight, Mike Tyson, of whom John is a great admirer. Add to that Tyson Fury’s own size and strength and his future as a boxer seems almost preordained but has he ever considered a different profession?

“Yeah, I’d probably be a politician. I’m pretty good at talking. So, yeah, I think that would be my job. I was once interested in running for Parliament here in Morecambe and Lunesdale in 2015. I was getting quite into it and brought a lot of media attention to Morecambe, but I thought to myself that I may as well just keep doing what I’m doing in my boxing career. Finish that first and then I can see what I want to do.”

There have been times when Tyson thought he had already finished that career. In 2016, Tyson took a break from the sport in order to deal with the mental health issues that he has been so open and frank about. He confessed that, at times, he wished his life would end. Fortunately, although challenges remain, Tyson recovered to the extent that he was able to return to the ring in July 2018, when he beat Albanian fighter Sefer Seferi.

After another victory against Italian Francesco Pianeta, Tyson prepared to meet WBC champion Deontay Wilder. During Tyson’s hiatus from boxing, Wilder had expressed the opinion that Fury was finished as a fighter. Tyson cited his determination to prove Wilder wrong as a major motivator in his return to boxing. The bout, which took place on 1 December 2018, resulted in a draw, proving that Tyson was far from finished. However, that was not the end of the matter, as the two men would meet twice more.

At the first of those rematches, Tyson Fury took Wilder’s WBC title, winning by a technical knockout (TKO) as Wilder’s corner threw in the towel. That fight also won him the vacant The Ring championship. On the second occasion, Fury won by a knockout and retained the WBO and The Ring championships.

In April 2022, Tyson successfully defended his titles against fellow Brit Dillian Whyte. After the fight, Tyson expressed his intention to retire from boxing. In August 2022 he formally announced his retirement and vacated his The Ring championship. By the time he retired, Tyson Fury had held an impressive collection of heavyweight championship belts from the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring magazine. Furthermore, he was undefeated. Who could ask for more?

Asking for more

An announcement in October 2022 stated that Tyson Fury would come out of retirement to defend his WBC title against British contender Derek Chisora. The fight took place on 3 December 2022 and Fury won the match by a TKO. At the time of writing, Tyson is scheduled to fight boxer and mixed martial artist Francis Ngannou in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 28 October 2023. The match, although official, will not be a WBC title bout.

Having retired once and then returned to successfully defend his title, Fury’s undefeated WBC world champion credentials are surely beyond dispute.

Why does he keep doing it?

“I decided to do another fight. Obviously, I’m an active boxer. I’ve been trying to get a fight all year, really. It took until last month to agree a deal with somebody but now we’ve got October 28th happening over in Saudi Arabia. Why do I do any of the fights? Why does anyone go to work? Obviously to earn a few quid and pay your bills.”

Francis Ngannou is a rather different kind of fighter to most opponents Tyson has faced in the ring. What difference does he think Ngannou’s MMA background will make?

“I just think all men are men. All fighters are the same, I suppose. If you’ve got two men in a ring, or a cage, or over there on the grass, it’s still a fight. If you had a Ferrari and I was in a VW Passat and we were going to race, then who’s going to win? What happens if I crashed into the Ferrari on the start line, buckled all the back wheels and then drove off? One punch can change everything.

“I’m training for this Francis Ngannou, who is a UFC heavyweight champion, very seriously, even though the media and a lot of people want me to overlook him by saying he’s not got a chance. Whatever they rank him as, 10 to 1, 20 to 1, 5 to 1, whatever it might be, I’ll take this fight as seriously as any other fight that I’ve ever had. For me, it’s like if I beat Francis, I beat another man and I’ll add him to the 35 I’ve already beaten over the years, but if he beats me, then he becomes a legend. If I beat him, he doesn’t do anything for me apart from adding money to my bank balance. That’s it.”

Blood money

Title fight or not, as Tyson says, there is a lot at stake in a bout that could be decided by one lucky punch in either direction. More at stake for him than for Ngannou. So, even though he said he does it to pay the bills, it’s not just about the money, is it?

“I suppose. You can say professional boxing is not just about getting paid, but it is also a business. You know, when you’re in there on the night, actually fighting, then it’s not about money because you couldn’t pay me any amount of money to lose. But it’s a very dangerous business as well. So you need to be paid as much as possible for going and getting your brains knocked out.

“You’ve heard the saying ‘blood money’, well, that’s what boxing is. It’s blood money because you use your fists to smash someone else’s face in to get money. So it’s definitely blood money. You get paid to go in there and absolutely annihilate somebody and he’s getting paid to do that to you. If he kills you in that ring, he doesn’t go to jail or nothing: he gets to go away scot-free. So, we both know the risks of going in there and fighting. Heavyweights are one punch away from the grave.

“It’s definitely a dangerous sport for a man in my position with everything to lose: family, kids and all that. You need to be paid a lot of money to risk it all. I am being paid a lot of money, so that’s why I’m risking it. If I wasn’t being paid a lot of money, guess what? I’d kick it up into the air and say I’m not even interested.”

A form of addiction

What would make him stop?

“I don’t know. I’ve been doing this my whole life and I don’t know anything else. When you start off you want to buy your own house. You want nice things: watches, cars, all that sort of s— . When you achieve it, it’s like, well, what do I do next? You’ve got to keep setting new goals, new targets and I don’t know anything else but hitting targets, whether it’s a boxing target, a money target, a business, whatever it might be. I will cross that bridge [stopping] when it’s time. I suppose every fighter knows when it’s time. But 99.99% of fighters know but they continue to go on because it’s very difficult to let something go that you’ve done forever, from being a little boy to being an adult. I’m nearly 40 years old and it’s hard to let it go.

“I thought I was clever, a shrewd man and I’d know when to let it go but I truly believe I should have retired in 2020 when I first said I was going to retire. But it brought me back. It brought me back for more and more and more and more. And it’s never going to stop until there’s a disaster and then you think to yourself, why didn’t I stop when I should have? You end up living a life of regret.

“I’ve tried to get away from this game for, I’d say, 20 years and I can’t let it go. It’s more addictive than drugs, sugar, alcohol, love. It’s more addictive than anything. You think it’d be easy to let go of getting your brains knocked out for a few quid but it’s not; it’s very difficult.”

Why it’s worth it

“Someone might come to me and say ‘Right, we’ll give you a fight for £50 million’. Why wouldn’t I want to box for 50 million? I think to myself, is there ever going to be a person from my family, even in 500 years, who’s going to be in a position to do 30 minutes of work and get £50 million? So you’re setting up your grandkids and their grandkids and you know you’re doing it for more than me. It’s not about me anymore. It’s not even about my kids anymore: it’s generational. Do you know what I mean?”

And just like that, a whole set of assumptions are undermined. When we see a boxer continuing to risk his life, when he’s already earned a fortune, most of us probably question how much money one man can need, or even spend. For Tyson, it’s no longer just about that. It’s also about how much he can invest in future generations of his family who may not have the opportunities he has had. But what does Tyson’s wife, Paris, think about it?

“Paris has not known anything different either. Don’t forget, she was 15 when we met and I was 16. So I’ve always been a boxer then and, when we got married, I was always a professional fighter. But nobody wants me to continue. My whole family have said ‘That’s enough now. You’ve got nothing to prove; you’ve earned tons of money; you’ve got a fantastic career; you’ve won every belt. Walk away’.

Living without “normal”

“And having targets and different goals is good for my mental health, sort of what gets me through. Being a normal person is not enough for me. Going to work, coming home, doing your job, picking the kids up from school, tip runs and all that. I’ve tried and it doesn’t work unless I’m aiming for the stars. Being a normal person for me just doesn’t cut it. I’m anything but normal. I’m abnormal, so I suppose I’ve just got to keep going with my abnormal way of living and see what the future holds.”

Normal and abnormal are difficult concepts to pin down, but Tyson clearly feels that he is different. Despite the health problems he has faced, and continues to face, he seems to accept himself for what he is, and he’s not the only one. American heavyweight legend Mike Tyson, for whom John Fury named his son, said in an interview with The Ring that Tyson Fury’s health ordeal has helped make him the person he is. “Tyson [Fury] doesn’t know what normal is,” Iron Mike said. “Tell him to stay the f— away from normal; he wasn’t meant to be normal.”

Making a difference

Tyson is very aware that he is in a unique position to help others who may be facing their own struggles with mental health issues. By sharing his story so openly, he wants to show that people can succeed despite depression, anxiety or whatever their personal challenges may be.

“At first, you think being a professional boxer or a sportsman is all right. You can entertain a few people on a Saturday night. But millions of people around the world can take inspiration from it and know that they’re not on their own. Somebody who’s as successful as me, a world heavyweight champion who looks untouchable, can be brought to his knees with mental health pressures too. So, it can be all right for those other people to be unwell because, you know what? Gypsy King’s done well and he’s the same; he’s one of us.

“I’ve been very, very, very vocal about my ongoing mental health journey. Like I say, no one’s untouchable. And somebody very, very close to you like your cousin, your uncle, your friend, they will be affected by mental health problems. That’s how close it is and that’s how real it is. Just because we can’t see this disability doesn’t mean it’s not alive.

“I get a lot of mail about it. People say I’ve saved lives and whatever. But, you know, every day may be a struggle but sunshine days are around the corner. You wake up in a bad mood, you wake up down and dark and low. Get through today and we’ll look forward to tomorrow. We’ve got to go do it one day at a time.

“One little girl, 17 years old, saved up her money for... must have been two or three years. And she bought me a number plate because she said I saved her life [Tyson shows a photo of the number plate on his phone]. That actually made me cry because, although I didn’t realise it, me being open with my own struggles helps a lot of other people and even saves lives.

“I come from a little tiny village in Cheshire. In my school there was 26 children so it’s probably the smallest little parish you’ve ever seen. To come from there and conquer the world, not once but twice, shows that anybody from any little place on Earth can achieve something if they want it bad enough. You can achieve everything you’ve ever wanted and spread a positive message.”

Pop star?

In 2022, Tyson’s love of singing, and his desire to raise awareness of mental health issues, combined when he released a single. His cover of ‘Sweet Caroline’ spent a week at number one on the Official Singles Chart in November of that year. The single was released to raise money for the mental health charity Talk Club UK. Talk Club offers talking groups, sports groups and therapy to help men improve or maintain their mental health.

Tyson’s singing came as no surprise to anyone: he’s well known for bursting into song at pretty much any opportunity. What was, perhaps, more of a revelation was just how professional he sounded on a properly recorded and mixed track. When he finally does retire from boxing, if the politics idea doesn’t appeal to him, perhaps he could consider swapping his gloves for a microphone. His wardrobe would certainly lend itself to stage appearances.

“I’ve a tailor who’s made all my suits since 2014 and we come up with these extravagant designs, shirts, coats, whatever I want. It’s my personality: flamboyant, colourful, charismatic.

I suppose I’ve never really been a boring person. I’ve always been outspoken, controversial, confident. So, just wearing a brown suit wouldn’t really work!”

Stop press!

When we began preparing this article we were very aware of two things. Firstly, Tyson hadn’t yet given Paris her new private registration, so we had no idea whether she would like it. We were delighted to receive a text message from Tyson saying “She was over the moon with the plate as u could expect.” Secondly, and infinitely more importantly, Paris and Tyson were expecting their seventh child literally any minute. We checked the news and the Furys’ social media constantly until, on 18 September, the couple announced the birth of their new son. We are delighted to join everyone else in welcoming Prince Rico Paris Fury to the world and send our sincere congratulations to Mum, Dad, brothers and sisters.

Interview: Angela Banh

Story: Rick Cadger

Location photography: Amy England

How does she do it?

Paris Fury is well known as the power behind the Gypsy King’s throne. As if she didn’t have enough on her plate looking after Tyson, their home and seven children, Paris has inexplicably found the time and energy to write two books about her life and family. Her first, Love and Fury: The Magic and Mayhem of Life with Tyson received great reviews.

Her second book, How Does She Do It?: The Kids, Tyson & Me was released on 28 September 2023. It looks sure to be as fascinating as the first, so order your copy now from your favourite bookseller.