The WBC heavyweight champion has acknowledged with pride that his upbringing was affluent even though his Traveler heritage affected his early romance with his wife Paris.
Tyson Fury can attest from personal experience that some of the greatest fighters are genuinely born winners.
At the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, the Gypsy King successfully stopped Deontay Wilder via spectacular knockout to maintain his title as the WBC heavyweight champion.
After the American got off to a quick start, Fury had to get back up twice, but he persevered and eventually wore down Wilder, who saw the fight called off as soon as he fell down head first in the eleventh round.
The 33-year-old is no stranger to beating the odds; he struggled to live even in the early days following a risky early birth.
John, his father, who was also a bare-knuckle boxer, supported his son right away, saying he “wouldn’t make it” despite medical professionals’ warnings.
Here, we look back at Fury’s early years, his unexpectedly affluent upbringing, and how he has managed to remain loyal to his Traveller heritage.
Scared by dad’s prophecy after birth
It’s amazing to imagine that Fury, who is currently 6 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 19 stone 11 pounds, was once so little that doctors were afraid he wouldn’t live.
Only four of Fury’s mother Amber’s fourteen pregnancies ended in survival, and he was delivered three months early in 1988.
Tyson Fury as a baby with his dad John (Image: ITV)
“He was a pound in weight and the doctors said he probably wouldn’t make it,” John Fury told the ITV documentary Tyson Fury: The Gypsy King.
The determined dad, however, told the medics at Wythenshawe Hospital that his son would beat the odds – and made a prophetic declaration about his future.
“I said to all the doctors he won’t be small, he’ll be nearly seven foot tall, 20 stone and the heavyweight champion of the world,” said John.
“I thought there was only one name fit for him; he’d fought hard to be a person living in this world and Mike Tyson was the best heavyweight in the world at the time.”
Fury is related to Bartley Gorman, the self-proclaimed King of the Gypsies who was born in 1944 and who dominated the world of bare-knuckle boxing from 1972 until 1992.
During the 80s and 90s, John also competed as a bare-knuckle fighter at amateur and professional level.
While Fury has often been snapped with his dad at matches, his mum keeps a much lower profile – and has never watched a single one of her son’s fights.
Opening up on her private nature, the boxer said: “I looked on Google the other day and there’s not one picture of my mother on the internet. That’s crazy isn’t it?
“She has never been to one of my boxing fights, amateur or professional and never been in the public eye at all. She’s a private person. That’s her priority, not mine.
“I don’t think it means anything to my mum. She doesn’t care if I’m world champion or not, as long as I’m healthy and happy. That is the only thing that means anything to her.”
Gentle giant went to ‘posh’ primary school
Over the years, Fury has spoken proudly of his Traveller roots, but also opened up about his surprisingly posh childhood.
His family lived in a house John built with his bare hands – situated in the leafy village of Styal, Wilmslow.
Tyson Fury dressed as Rambo for World Book Day aged 9 in school
The area is part of the ‘Golden Triangle’ that includes Alderley Edge and Prestbury – which boasts a road when average house prices start at a whopping £1.5million.
More recently, The Real Housewives of Cheshire has been filmed in the upmarket district.
“We grew up in a posh area called Styal in Wilmslow, Cheshire,” Fury told The Telegraph.
“My dad provided us with a nice home. I was very privileged as a child.
“We weren’t around all the Travellers on the sites. The only Travellers we knew were our own family and cousins.”
In 1993, Fury joined Styal Primary School, which has been rated “outstanding” by Ofted.
“The school I went to had 47 kids in it. It was a really posh primary school – Prince Charles even visited us,” he explained.
“There was no racial prejudice or abuse or anything.”
Ahead of his showdown against Wilder, his former teacher revealed that even at the age of nine the young lad insisted: “I’m going to be a world champion boxer.”
Jane Foddy, who taught him for two years at primary school, told the Mirror: “He was just so determined and strong willed. He was determined to do everything as well as he could.
“When he came into my class he told me ‘I want to be a world champion boxer’. Not just a boxer, but a world champion.
“You think to yourself ‘that is somebody who knows what they want to do’.”
Despite his premature birth, Mrs Foddy recalled that her former pupil quickly developed a hulking frame – looking “more like an 11-year-old” when he was just six.
The future heavyweight was a gentle giant who towered above his classmates, but learned from a young age not to rise to their taunts.
“He was a quiet boy and he loved his play times,” said Mrs Foddy. “But because he was so big, the other boys would taunt him and try to get him to react. We taught him to walk away.
“He could not risk hurting anybody because he was so strong, even then. He learnt self-control, which I think has been important to him.”
First job taught Fury value of discipline
Following in his father’s footsteps, Fury took up amateur boxing as a teenager – but credits another job for his disciplined work ethic.
From the age of 10 to 16, the budding fighter worked on his dad’s car lot.
Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder exchange punches (Image: Getty Images)
John was a used-car dealer and his son’s job was to wash down the vehicles and clean them out.
“I could drive from the age of nine,” Fury told the Guardian.
“My dad had his car pitch at home, and we used to drive the cars around the land, take them up to the tap, wash them and reverse them back.
“By the time I was 17 I could drive like Colin McRae.”
Working long shifts on Fridays and at the weekends, Fury said it was nonetheless a “good job” and kept him out of trouble.
“It was great for me because it gave me discipline. I know how to work for money and I know how to appreciate it when I’ve got it,” he added.
“It also kept me out of trouble and kept me off the streets, drinking and all that stuff.”
Fighter didn’t sleep with wife until marriage
Fury was just 15 years old when he first met Paris – his childhood sweetheart whom he would marry five years later.
Introduced by his Auntie Theresa, who was known as the “matchmaker” in the family, his wife later explained the teenager adhered strictly to Traveller traditions.
Childhood sweethearts Paris and Tyson Fury got married aged 20 (Image: Internet Unknown)
“Even after we got engaged, Tyson would sleep in a caravan at my parents’ home, while I slept inside the house,” Paris said.
We didn’t sleep together until after we got married. That is the Travellers’ way.”
In further keeping with tradition, neither Fury or Paris attended school beyond the age of 11.
And earlier this month the mum-of-six revealed she similarly let their eldest daughter, Venezuela, leave school at the same age.
She wanted Venezuela to quit school after she finished her primary education as it followed the traditions of her Traveller background.
Paris told The Sun’s Fabulous Magazine: “We finish school at primary age, which is the traditional Traveller way.
“We’ve just brought the tradition into the 21st century. Venezuela wanted to leave school and all her [Traveller] friends were leaving.”
She continued: “Her tutor is gonna keep her up to date with all of her tests. She will also be having piano lessons.”
The couple are also parents to Prince John James, Prince Adonis Amaziah, Valencia Amber, Prince Tyson Fury II and Athena.
Fury wants them to stay in school, but Paris wants them to be taught at home and to remain under her roof until they marry.
Whether or not their children will go to school in the traditional sense was discussed in his documentary last year.
Me and Tyson have talked about the kids going to school,” said Paris. “Tyson wants the boys to go into education but I don’t; it’s just not what we’ve ever done.
“I was brought up as a Traveller and I want my kids to be brought up as Travellers. They will probably leave school at 11 and they’ll be educated at home from then.
“The boys will take a wife and make their family and the girls will take a husband and make their family. Until they take a husband or wife they won’t be leaving the home and I wouldn’t want them to, but for definite Venezuela won’t be.”
