For the early part of his career Tyson Fury rarely got into any damaging battles inside the ring, using his reach and superior technical skills to keep him out of danger.
‘The Gypsy King’ followed to the old boxing adage of ‘hit and don’t get hit’, never more so than in his first world title fight against Wladimir Klitschko back in 2015. Fury travelled to Germany as the heavy underdog but put on a boxing masterclass to relinquish Klitschko of his WBA, IBF, WBO, and Ring magazine titles by unanimous decision.
The Brit then took an extended leave from the sport to battle personal issues which saw him dealing with depression and weight gain.
After nearly three years out, Fury made his return with two warmup fights before earning a shot at the WBC belt against feared puncher Deontay Wilder.
He would once again outbox his opponent for the majority of the contest and miraculously survived a last round knockdown where he looked out for the count. The fight would officially be scored a draw, although most pundits and fans in attendance believed Fury had been robbed of the most sensational comeback story.
Fury changed trainer to SugarHill Steward and would go on to have two more fights with Wilder. The change in cornerman saw a dramatic change in style, no longer the slick backfoot counterpuncher, the 6’9 giant would now use his physical attributes to push the action and look for the knockout.
It proved effective and Tyson stopped Wilder in their next two fights, albeit the last being a thrilling back and forth affair where Fury was put on the canvas twice in the fourth round.
Speaking on a twitter space before he faced current undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk, the former champion admitted his third encounter with the Bronze Bomber took a lot out of him and was, up to that point, the hardest fight of his career.
“The first Wilder fight wasn’t the most challenging. Me and Wilder had a trilogy, so we ha three title fights together. I think the third one was probably the hardest fight of my career. Wilder 3, we both went to war, we both came in with damaging intentions. He put me down twice and I put him down three times and I ended up getting the knock out in round 11.
But I do believe it took a lot out of both fighters for sure. Hell of a fight.”
Fury suffered his first career defeat at the hands of Usyk in May but will get the chance to avenge that loss when they rematch at the end of the year in Saudi Arabia.
