Tyson Fury

Despite strongly identifying with his Irish heritage, Fury has had problems in gaining dual citizenship because his father's birth in County Galway was not recorded civilly in the 1960s, as Irish Travellers at the time only recorded births through baptism with the church rather than officially with the state.

After dethroning Wladimir Klitschko, Fury would quip that "becoming the heavyweight champion of the world is not as hard a fight as proving [his] Irishness".

Fury left school when he was 11, and joined his father and three brothers tarmacking roads.

His mother Amber had 14 pregnancies in total, but only four of the children survived.

Fury's father competed in the 1980s as "Gypsy" John Fury, initially as a bare-knuckle and unlicensed boxer, and then as a professional boxer.

Tyson Luke Fury (born 12 August 1988) is a British professional boxer.

Tyson Luke Fury was born in the Wythenshawe area of Manchester on 12 August 1988, the son of Irish Traveller parents Amber and John Fury.

He was born three months premature and weighed just 1 lb. His father named him after American boxer Mike Tyson, who was the heavyweight world champion at the time, and later explained, "The doctors told me there was not much chance of him living. I had lost two daughters in the same way who had been born prematurely."

He decided on the name "Tyson" as Fury was "a fighter" and survived the premature birth.

Fury grew up in Styal, Cheshire, and would later often mention his love for both Styal and his birthplace of Manchester.

His paternal grandfather was from Tuam, which is also the birthplace of his father.

The Furys are ultimately of Gaelic origin, deriving their present surname from Ó Fiodhabhra.

His maternal grandmother is from County Tipperary and his mother was born in Belfast.

Peter Fury is also a former boxer, and was previously jailed for 10 years in 1995; he established an amphetamine trafficking network in North West England, and continued to oversee the criminal enterprise while behind bars.

Fury himself has not had trouble with the law.

The Fury family has a long history in boxing.

A daughter, Ramona, was born in December 1997 but died within days.

This experience has stayed with Fury, who was just nine years old at the time.

Fury began boxing at the age of 10.

He won the ABA super-heavyweight title in 2008 before turning professional later that year at 20 years of age.

After winning the English heavyweight title twice, he became the British and Commonwealth champion in 2011 by defeating the 14–0 Derek Chisora.

His father, John, trained him until 2011, when he was jailed for gouging out the eye of another Traveller due to a long-standing feud.

He then won the Irish and WBO Inter-Continental titles, before defeating Chisora again in a 2014 rematch for the European and WBO International heavyweight titles.

This success, along with his 24–0 record, set up a match with the long-reigning world champion Wladimir Klitschko in Germany, which Fury won by unanimous decision.

Fury was stripped of his IBF title 10 days after the Klitschko bout as he was unable to grant a fight with the IBF's mandatory challenger, Vyacheslav Glazkov, due to a rematch clause in his contract with Klitschko.

The rematch did not materialise as Fury had mental health issues leading to alcoholism, recreational drug use and extreme weight gain.

Fury's uncle Hughie Fury trained him until he died in 2014, after which Fury's other uncle Peter Fury (trainer of son Hughie Fury) trained him in preparation for his fight against Wladimir Klitschko.

Previously, he held the unified heavyweight titles from 2015 to 2016, and the Ring magazine title twice between 2015 and 2022.

He also held the International Boxing Organization (IBO) title during his first reign as champion.

With his defeat of Deontay Wilder, Fury became the third heavyweight, after Floyd Patterson and Muhammad Ali, to hold The Ring magazine title twice, and is widely considered by media outlets to be the lineal heavyweight champion.

As of December 2022, Fury is ranked as the world's best active heavyweight by BoxRec and ESPN, he is also ranked sixth pound-for-pound by ESPN and the Boxing Writers Association of America, and seventh by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.

As an amateur, Fury represented both England and Ireland, as he was born in Manchester to an Irish Traveller family.

Fury's family lineage comes from Belfast and Galway; his parents emigrated to England at a young age.

In 2016, he vacated the WBA, WBO and IBO titles; The Ring stripped him of his last remaining title in early 2018.

Later that year, after more than two years of inactivity, Fury challenged for the WBC heavyweight title against Wilder.

The fight was controversially scored as a draw.

Fury's strong performance against Wilder (including recovering from a heavy knockdown in the final round) earned him Comeback of the Year from The Ring and numerous other awards.

He has held the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title since 2020.

In the rematch in February 2020, Fury defeated Wilder by a technical knockout in the seventh round after a dominant performance.

He knocked out Wilder again in the trilogy fight in October 2021, this time in the eleventh round.