TYSON FURY: RISE OF THE GYPSY KING

S . DE

In an age where so much is changing, there is unexplainable joy in seeing old, worn-out has-beens returning to their very best. In 2017, Roger Federer won three 5-set battles and went on his way to a 6 th Australian Open, after a horror knee injury. Just last year, Tiger Woods won the Masters after a long term back injury and making headlines in previous years for all the wrong reasons. These are undoubtedly fantastic achievements which tennis and golf fans could rave about for days. But these do not quite match the riveting tale of the Gypsy King himself: Tyson Fury. It is the 28 th of November, 2015. Two fighters enter the ring in Westfalen – one a veteran boasting an almost 10 year stranglehold of the heavyweight championship, the other, an attention-grabbing Englishman in whose veins flows the spirit of boxing. Neither of them can predict that this night will be a turning point in heavyweight boxing history. Wladimir Klitschko vs Tyson Fury. The fight, in all honesty, is not an entertaining

one but to those with boxing nous, it is an interesting battle. Fury negates Klitschko’s strengths and in the latter six rounds, astounds him with shocking speed. Neither fighter offers much in the way of offence but Fury has just edged every single round to make him the world heavyweight champion. As world champion, Fury’s tenure of holding his belt was considerably fewer than his beaten opponent’s – almost 365 times fewer in fact, as he lost it after just 10 days. Before the fight, a rematch clause had been agreed, meaning that Fury would not face the mandatory IBF challenger, causing him to be stripped of his belt. The period after gaining world champion status was a dark one as Fury has admitted – from abuse of dangerous substances to ballooning in weight to over 330 pounds, Fury had, in his words to Rolling Stone, no motivation. Despite gaining the riches and just rewards he had worked so hard for, he felt hollow and empty. He even failed a drug test for cocaine and was (somewhat mercifully) spared the humiliation of domination by Klitschko by an ankle sprain before the fight. This feeling of no motivation is as sports fans know, an all too common one. It is part of the reason why (barring last season) no Premier League team had managed to defend their title in 10 years, and it is why current world no 1 Novak Djokovic, after winning his long coveted French Open, suffered an alarming dip in form right after. But the level of Fury’s depression was incomparable – in subsequent years after being treated for depression, he recounted a deeply distressing moment. “At the bottom of about a five-mile strip there’s a massive bridge that crosses the motorway. I got the car up to about 190mph and I was headed towards that bridge. I didn’t care what no-one was thinking, I didn’t care about hurting my family, friends, anybody. I didn’t care about nothing, I just wanted to die so bad, I gave up on life. And just as I was heading towards that bridge at 190mph in this Ferrari – it would have crushed like a Coke can if I’d have hit it – I heard a voice

saying: ‘No, don’t do this Tyson…Think about your kids, think about your family and your little boys and girls growing up with no father and everyone saying your dad was a weak man, he left you and he took the easy way out because he couldn’t do anything about it. And I thought that I’ll never ever try or think about taking my life ever again.’’ The recuperation that Fury went through was nothing short of astounding. With the help of Ben Davison and psychology meetings, he was able to not only get back to a fully motivated state but a state where he could box, albeit at ‘50%’. To recover so quickly is remarkable, but to do so and arrange a fight against the most feared, undefeated heavyweight in the world is something else entirely. This also came at a time where negotiations between Anthony Joshua, who had won Fury’s vacated belts, and Wilder seemed never-ending. The first fight between Fury and Wilder was one that got people off the edge of their seat, and the fight’s biggest highlight only goes to show the heart of Tyson Fury. In the 12 th round, Deontay Wilder landed the blow he had been searching for the entire fight and with a devastating haymaker, Fury was down, like the previous 41 fighters Wilder had faced. It looked as if he was out. But in Tyson Fury’s head, he is never, EVER out.

Unfathomably rising, as the crowd looked on in shock, Fury truly completed his comeback. Although the fight controversially ended in a draw (most would have given it to

Tyson), the stage was set for another one. Fury Wilder II was a very different fight to the first one – before the fight, Fury parted ways with Davison, the coach who had got him back to fitness, and both fighters looked exhausted by their prefight media duties. Only one of them truly wasn’t. Boxing in Nevada in front of thousands of eager spectators, a masterclass from Fury ensued. He was a lot more aggressive and surprised Wilder. At no point did Wilder ever seem in control of the fight, being knocked down twice before his team threw in the towel. Fury dominated and deservedly won the WBC belt, which had evaded anyone who fought Wilder. What makes Fury such an inspiration is not his impeccable boxing technique or how he surprises people time and time again. It is his spirit. His drive, perseverance and ultimately his love of family has brought him to the position he is in. He has conquered demons that no one should ever have to face, and was not afraid to recognise that he badly needed help. It is for these reasons that I feel that Tyson Fury really is the greatest sporting phenom of recent times.