John Fury was a professional boxer who suffered brutal KO against man who fought Lennox Lewis

Counting down the days until 25 December, talkSPORT is looking at 12 knockouts of Christmas . Up next it’s Big John Fury…

Gypsy John fought in hundreds of bare-knuckle bouts and 13 licensed professional contests and – even though the last two ended in brutal fashion – doesn’t appear to be done fighting yet.

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At 6ft 3in, built like a brick outhouse with a gravelly voice and a dead-eyed stare, Fury Sr always makes sure his presence is felt – just ask the the member of Oleksandr Usyk’s team he headbutted ahead of their first fight.

The elder Fury was causing chaos at the start of fight week in May where his WBC champion son was aiming to join the undisputed club by beating Usyk, which he ultimately failed to do. Usyk instead made history by becoming the modern era’s first four-belt heavyweight champion.

Tyson Fury may be taller than his dad, but he is almost gangly in stature and often has a playful glint in his eye. There is nothing playful about Gypsy John.

Galway-born, he comes from a long line of bare-knuckle champions and tough, travelling fighters. He began fighting on campsites, in bars or on the street as a teenager, once winning more than £100k by backing himself in a fight. His bouts were ‘usually over within seconds’, he’s said, although John Fury did not count himself as a big puncher.

“Once I got going, I’d not stop swinging until they were out cold,” the 59-year-old once told the Daily Star. “I’d not come up for air. I just wanted to kill. I’d hit them with fists, elbows, head, teeth and feet until they dropped and gave best [gave up]. If they didn’t, I’d kick their face off – it was up to them. Afterwards, shake hands and on to the next one.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, such an all-or-nothing approach did not translate seamlessly to the regulated world of professional boxing. Fury has a winning pro record of 8-4-1 but suffered a savage knockout the one time he stepped up to top level and took on rising star Henry Akinwande in a 1991 eliminator for the British heavyweight title, then held by Lennox Lewis, the last undisputed heavyweight before Usyk joined the club by beating Fury.

Fellow Brit Akinwande, who eventually fought Lewis in 1996 (infamously being disqualified for holding) was a 6ft 7in, elite-level heavyweight who did hold a version of the world heavyweight title.

The broad-shouldered Fury was as good as his word as he boldly took the fight to Akinwande, but while he looked the part physically, he clearly had none of his son’s famous defensive flair as he ate flush shots from the first bell. In round three, a textbook right hand hammered Fury to the canvas where he was counted out with one arm spilling over the bottom rope.

It was the first stoppage defeat of his pro career and he’s since explained his frustration with how professional boxing works. He might never have had the skills to go to the top, but by the end of 1998 Fury did own a 6-1 record, having won six straight (after losing a four-rounder on his debut to rugby league star turned boxer, Adam Fogerty).

However, he claims that winning went against him as promoters only wanted journeymen happy to lose to touted young prospects and so the calls stopped coming. “When you put up a good fight, my phone never rung any more – because winning would cost you money, believe it or not,” he said in 2021.

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“They only wanted to employ losers back in the day but because I kept winning, people would say: ‘Hang on a minute, he’ll beat a prospect – if he comes in on form, he’ll turn this prospect into a loser.’ So my phone stopped ringing. In the end I was boxing once a year. Every 18 months my phone would ring, when they thought I was out of shape and I couldn’t win anyway.”

Fury’s next licensed fight after his bludgeoning by Akinwande came four years later when he was beaten inside four rounds by journeyman Steve Garber, crumpling to the canvas after eating a pinpoint counter right hand. After that nasty knockout, he wisely never boxed professionally again.

Yet he did step in the ring with his son, many years ago, when Tyson Fury was just 14. His son’s first amateur coach, Jimmy Egan, called John up and told him he really needed to come down and see his son train as he was seeing something special.

“I went and watched him spar as a kid – 13 or 14 – I saw this immense potential,” he said. “Because at 14 he said: ‘Look, Dad, I’ve seen you train: I can beat you now.’ I said: ‘Yeah? Get the gloves on – you’ve been cheeky.’”

Unfortunately the senior Fury got the full Akinwande/Garber treatment from his son (though he was presumably far happier with the outcome). “The skill of the boy was uncanny,” he reflected.

“He could punch hard, fast, accurate. He jabbed me and he hit me with a right hook around my ribs and that was me done! I’d had 13 fights, been in with the best in Britain and Europe, some world-class men… so I knew then that he was a world champion in the making.”

Stephen Dunkley/Queensberry Promotions

John Fury’s in-ring pro career may have officially ended in 1995 but his fighting days were not completely behind him. In 2011, he was jailed after a bloody brawl erupted at a car auction, reportedly over a 12-year feud over a bottle of beer. The violent altercation cost Oathie Sykes his sight in one eye and Fury served four years in prison, being released in 2015: the year Tyson Fury shocked Wladimir Klitschko to become world heavyweight champion.

Tyson’s uncle, Peter Fury, was his trainer that night but John has been a vocal presence in his son’s camp. He was highly critical of Tyson’s training after his tougher-than-expected win over Otto Wallin in 2019, claiming he had ‘left it all in the gym’ and criticising the heavyweight’s then trainer, Ben Davison.

It was the last fight Tyson had under Davison before his link-up with SugarHill Steward, although the fighter and coach parted on good terms.

Yet while John is loud in trumpeting the boxing talents of Tyson – and his younger son, Love Island hunk Tommy – he’s not the kind of father to proclaim his own greatness above his son. In an early news segment, while Fury was a 20-year-old, fresh-faced new pro, he was asked whether he could’ve beaten his dad: “No,” he replied generously. John Fury quickly stepped in to correct him. “Forget me, he’s a Superman… If he’s managed right and looked after, he’ll be world champion.”

He has got plenty of predictions before his son’s fights correct, once trying to bet £100k with David Haye that his son would dominate and stop Deontay Wilder in their second fight (wisely, the Wilder-tipping Haye did not take that bet).

And that isn’t the only challenge he’s thrown out: he’s claimed the one man left he’d most like to fight is Mike Tyson, the undisputed world heavyweight champion when his son was born in 1988. Gypsy John gave his child the Tyson name because he was born at a dangerously premature age, but battled to survive.

“Here I am, John Fury is hiding from no man, not even the king of the old men Mike Tyson,” he claimed. The two Tysons get on and – given his honest appraisal of his own limitations as a gloved, pro boxer – John Fury is aware that he was never in Mike Tyson’s calibre. But given Gypsy John’s newfound fame and the world of celebrity boxing we now live in, perhaps we haven’t seen the very last of John Fury in a boxing ring, 29 years after his final licensed fight.

Riyadh is now bracing itself for what could be another explosive week for the Fury clan.

The team are in Saudi Arabia preparing for the rematch where Tyson will hope he can give fans an early Christmas present.

And whether John will be in his corner remains to be seen. He received criticism in some corners for his involvement in the first fight, but son Tyson says he is staying out of it.

talkSPORT will bring you live commentary of Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday, December 21 with our coverage kicking off from 7.30pm