Fury - BEHIND THE MASK: my autobiography

Contents

About the Author

Tyson Fury is the undefeated lineal heavyweight champion of the world. Born and raised in Manchester, Fury weighed just 1lb at birth after being born three months premature. His father John named him after Mike Tyson.

From Irish traveller heritage, theGypsy King is undefeated in 28 professional fights, winning 27 with 19 knockouts, and drawing once. His most famous victory came in 2015, when he stunned longtime champion Wladimir Klitschko to win the WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight titles. He was forced to vacate the belts because of issues with drugs, alcohol and mental health, and did not fight again for more than two years. Most thought he was done with boxing forever. Until an amazing comeback fight with Deontay Wilder in December 2018. It was an instant classic, ending in a split decision tie.

Outside of the ring, Tyson Fury is a mental health ambassador. He donated his million dollar purse from the Deontay Wilder fight to the homeless.

This book is dedicated to the cause of mental health awareness. I would plead with anyone reading my story who feels they are experiencing similar issues to seek out professional help immediately. There is hope.

List of Illustrations

. John Fury.. John Fury.. Tyson Fury.. Tyson Fury.. Public Domain.. John Fury.. Tyson Fury.. John Fury.. John Fury.

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. Leigh Dawney.

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. Sky Sports.

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. C1 Media/BT Sport.

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Acknowledgements

I want to thank my wife Paris for putting up with all of the rubbish that Ive made her deal with, and to thank her for all of her goodness and kindness.

Prologue

June 2016, Manchester

The speedometer hit 160mph. This was it the end was coming, the pain would be over.

The sun was shining on a perfect summers day. I had just picked up a brand-new red convertible Ferrari; I was the heavyweight champion of the world; I had a beautiful wife and family. My life should have been as good as it gets, but my soul was as black as my boots.

Just a few months previously I was standing in the ring with the world acclaiming me as the best heavyweight on earth. I was the man who had followed in the footsteps of such legends as Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis. Yet now, as I drove along the motorway in this new dream car, I was caught in the nightmare of clinical depression. I had it all but I felt I had nothing to live for. There was no point to my existence.

As I came off the motorway and slowed down I just knew it was time to leave all this torture behind. Right, come on, Tyson, just get this over with. My mind was made up, it was in a place of meaninglessness. Nothing mattered; I didnt matter. I looked at the upcoming bridge. That was the target; that was the end point. The Ferraris engine roared back into life. It would be the last sound I would hear. In a couple of seconds my mind would be clear, devoid of all the voices that were boiling in my head. I put my foot to the floor. The end was in view.

Then, in the moment before I was set to crash, a voice shot into my head: No! Stop! Think about your kids! And I blasted past the bridge before hammering on the brakes.

...

Thats as close as I have come to ending it all. I look back with relief and bewilderment at just how a person can enter such a state, suffocated by depression like I was, and I give thanks to God. Without my faith I would have committed suicide that day. My children would not have a father to guide them and my amazing wife Paris would have been robbed of a husband who, for all my faults, loves her with all his heart.

Unless you have experienced it, you really dont know what depression is like. At that moment, and in other moments like it, I have just felt like nothing on earth matters; absolutely nothing. So what is the point of living? Immediately after I got out of the car I was thinking about what the consequences could have been, and I dont want to go anywhere near that point again in my life. But then it is very easy to slowly slip back into that way of thinking. Im sure some who are reading this may have experienced what Im describing. I want to assure everyone that there is a way out, there is a pathway to receiving help. If that wasnt the case I wouldnt have made my comeback, I wouldnt be fighting again in the hardest sport in the world. I could easily have ended up in a padded cell because of some of the things I have done, but Im fighting back.

1 December 2018, the Staples Center, Los Angeles

Youre beat, youre beat. Im going to take you to school, you big dosser. As we were brought together before the first bell, and throughout the first round, I was taunting the WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. But in the opening moments of the fight I did find out why Wilder calls himself Bomb Squad. He landed a jab and I thought, Woah. I could feel the knuckle right through my hand as I blocked it.

Before the fight my trainer Ben Davison had been concerned about the way in which Wilder often hits guys with punches behind the head, which can have a devastating effect on the brain. Ben had actually flagged it up to referee Jack Reiss and as the fight wore on, he was wary of how Wilder was trying to catch me. In the ninth round Bens fear became a reality. Wilder tagged me behind the ear and down I went. Maybe I got a little too comfortable and the effects of losing so much weight before the fight had taken a little spring out of my step. But its also the kind of shot that short-circuits the brain. Theres nothing you can do when you get hit behind the ear or on the temple: your body loses control and you hit the deck. Still, whatever, I was down, and with two minutes left in the round Wilder believed he had enough time to finish me off.

Wrong! I wasnt hurt and I got to my feet and got back to what I had been doing and that was boxing the head off Wilder. As he came at me, winging right hands, I clamped him to my body, allowed my head to clear and then I fired back. Soon I was snapping his head back with my jab, a shot I had honed as a weapon back in my earliest days as an amateur. Wilder didnt know what to do with me. Hes the WBC champion, with scary power in his fists, but he cant land his punches. He cant get control of me the way he did with the rest of his thirty-nine opponents, all dispatched by knockout. I finished the round strongly, slam bam in his face with solid shots. How frustrating must that have been for him? He was used to having opponents on the hook and then taking them out.

While I was showing a surprised Wilder that I was going nowhere, little did I know that Ben was having a furious row with the local officials who were trying to keep him from getting to his feet to see if I was all right. The rule in LA is that the corner must remain seated, but when the heavyweight championship of the world is on the line thats easier said than done. Ben desperately wanted to know what kind of shape I was in. But with under a minute to go I was in my groove, firing home my jab, and Wilder was now the one looking tired, unable to sustain any attacks as I taunted him by putting my hands behind my back and sticking my tongue out at him.

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