FIRST AND THE FURIOUS
Brutal childhood of Tyson Fury’s dad John who gouged rival’s eye & was ‘ripped apart’ in first bare-knuckle brawl aged 5
WITH savage trash talk, flipped tables and a narrowly avoided mass brawl, it seemed more like a scene from WWE than boxing.
It all kicked off at the pre-fight press conference for Tommy Fury vs KSI, when the former's dad John, 59, lashed out on stage.
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The furious ex-fighter told YouTuber-turned-boxer KSI that he was “full of s***” after mocking the Fury family's sporting legacy.
Grabbing his crotch, John yelled: “Shut up motherf*****, come fight me now instead of talking all this bulls***.”
Within seconds, John had knocked over multiple tables and security were pulling the groups apart before anyone traded blows.
It's certainly a case of Fury by name, fury by nature when it comes to John - who is also the father of heavyweight champion Tyson - as his life has been dominated by violence.
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From brutal childhood scraps to a £100,000 bare-knuckle fight and a prison stint for blinding a rival, we reveal details about his shocking life.
Bare-knuckle brawls aged 5
John was born to a family of Irish travellers, who lived in Tuam, Galway, before relocating to Manchester due to a lack of jobs.
“I’m a travelling man. I was born in a caravan," he declares in the family's new Netflix show, At Home With The Furys.
"Gimme me caravan, gimme me dog, gimme me family and let me get in the middle of that field where I belong.”
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By the age of five, he had his first fight with a "much older" boy that left him “ripped to pieces” and “wet through with blood”.
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In 2021, he told the Disruptors With Rob Moore podcast: “I remember it because I was entangled in barbed wire...
“I got wrapped up in barbed wire and was ripped to pieces… I remember I thought, ‘Me mam’s going to kill me’ because I tore me jumper.
“I was more scared of me mam because I ripped me clothes on barbed wire and I was wet through with blood.”
John believes his exposure to fighting at such an early age stemmed from growing up “rough on tough” and being descended from bare-knuckle fighters.
He explained: “You had to be a fighter just to get up in the morning... if you didn’t have three fights that week [in] the crowds of people that we grew up... it wasn't the norm.
“It was sort of forced on us and it had to be in our DNA to survive basically, but that’s what cards were dealt and we played them."
'Dangerous' boxing career
John’s professional boxing career began in 1987 and spanned eight years – ending with eight wins, four losses, and one draw.
Fighting was never something he planned but as a young father at 18, he felt he had no choice while trying to keep his family afloat.
“In our culture, you've got to provide for yourself. You can’t go back to your mother or your father and say lend me £20 or I’m a bit stuck today,” John recalled.
“They say, ‘You made your bed, you lay in it’ and I thought ‘I’ve got to get money how I can’. If I had a slack week, I’d call up the manager who was called ‘ever-ready Tommy.’”
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John claims he started out as a “journeyman” and was paid up to £300 a time for amateur matches.
He recalls: “I was never supposed to win any of them… but I kept winning and in those days winning used to cost me money.
“They only wanted to book you to make a prospect look better. I was there to lose but every time I got in there with a prospect I won because I had this fire inside of me.”
Despite this natural fighting talent, John was knocked out three times – including by future WBO champion Henry Akinwande – in his professional career.
He attributes his four losses to “never [being] 100 per cent fit”, working a full-time job and not having the luxury of having training camps, a dietician, or any professional training.
John said: “I was working all day, doing my daily duties, which was hard work. It was manual labour.
“I’d finish at 5 o’clock, have me tea… put me feet up and then drive 50-100 miles to the venue in an old scrap car, fight, get me money and come home.”
By 1995, John called time on his boxing career because he believed it was “too dangerous” and there was no care for fighters’ health.
£100k bare-knuckle clash
Inside the ring wasn’t the only place where John was trading blows with opponents.
He claims to have had “more than 100” fights in total during his life and insisted he had “never lost outside the ring”.
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That included a bare-knuckle fight for which he was paid a whopping £100,000.
John said: “We do a lot of things in life for money don’t we because our backs are against the wall, if you can get money quick and sharp you’re going to do it.”
He believes he used to “fight harder” outside the ring, describing himself as “a bit of a dangerous character”.
John added: “Outside you’ve got everything and I make use of everything, me feet, elbows, head, teeth you name it… I’d make use of it.”
That was proven true in 2011 when he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for gouging a rival’s eye out during a fight at a car auction.
It followed a 12-year feud between John and his victim Oathie Sykes, which reportedly started when they clashed over a bottle of beer in Cyprus back in 1999.
Recalling the 2011 attack, Oathie told the court: “It was like he was trying to pull his finger into my brains through my socket… I was screaming, 'Please stop, you’re hurting me.'
“After that, he tried to take my other eye – he tried to blind me, sir. Not once, he tried to blind me twice.”
John served four years before being released in February 2015.
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No weddings, funerals & booze
Knowing any trouble with the law could lead to a hefty prison sentence, John says he is “a recluse” and avoids certain social situations.
He said: “There’s no bail for John Fury. None... When I go again it's for life, I've been told that straight. I’m a one-strike lifer.”
As a result, John avoids funerals, weddings, social nights and anywhere with “people and drink”.
He insists his life is “not very entertaining” – consisting of daily one-hour runs, TV, day-to-day jobs and “a bit of wheeling and dealing”.
John’s main hobby is tinkering with caravans and classic cars from the early 1900s to the 1970s – which he does to recall old memories.
He says: “I can reflect and get enjoyment because when I see [the cars] I can see my family… I’m the only living relative now apart from me brother and me and him are estranged.”
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John admits he doesn’t have many friends and is skeptical of outsiders including supposed pals of Tyson and Tommy since their boxing success.
He says: “I can smell a fake from 30ft away... I’d rather be on me own.
"When you’ve got a friend when you’re poor and a nobody you’ve got a friend... new bushes don't sweep clean with me.”
Mental health struggles
Like his son Tyson, John has had struggles with his mental health and admits that if he has two good days a week then he is happy.
The 59-year-old is plagued by dark thoughts including his belief that “everyone’s me enemy, the world’s against me and it’s all been a waste of time”.
He overcomes these struggles by tiring himself out with exercise and talking to like-minded people “who don’t look at you like a raving madman”.
But even with these mindful practices, John is aware that he has a very short temper and is easily triggered – especially when “someone insults me or my family”.
John said: “All of a sudden, I change into somebody else, probably a monster, and I don't like that character that I change into but I can't help it.
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“If someone insults me or my family, I instantly think, ‘I can't take that’ and all of a sudden violence comes to my head, violent thoughts and next thing it’s off.
“Would I let anyone disrespect me? No. I don’t care if it costs me my life, they could give me 125 years. If someone disrespects John I'll bring out a breakfast.”
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