HE’S the undefeated heavyweight champ and devoted dad-of-six, with a reported fortune of £130million.
But Tyson Fury, 34, has been plagued by a series of hard knocks that have threatened to derail his career and send him spiralling into addiction.
Yesterday the Gypsy King revealed his heartbreak over the death of cousin Rico Burton, 31, who was stabbed in the neck in a senseless attack on a night out in Manchester.
Posting about the harrowing news on his Instagram page the boxer – who trained with his cousin in his younger days – called for tougher sentences on “idiots carrying knives”.
He added: “You don’t know how hard it is until it’s one of your own.
“Life is very precious and it can be taken away very quick. Enjoy every moment.”
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It’s a fresh blow for the family man who has previously battled mental health issues, exacerbated by tragedy – including the simultaneous loss of a baby and a beloved uncle in the same hospital in 2014.
The double whammy almost ended his reign at the top, sending him into a haze of drink and drugs as he struggled with bipolar disorder and suicidal thoughts.
A fighter in more ways than one, he battled back from the brink to reclaim his heavyweight title in 2020, but says suffering in silence for years “nearly killed him”.
“I’ve been an alcoholic, I’ve been a drug addict, I’ve been a fat b***** because I am a food addict and there’s not much I haven’t been addicted to,” he told talkSport last year.
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“But I have recovered and I do feel better for it. There is life after mental health, if you manage it, and the last thing we need is for people to give in to mental health.
“It is a fight, it is a battle that we will have to continue to battle and fight for our whole life. But life is so much worth fighting for.”
As a new tragedy rocks the Fury family, we look at how the boxer has bounced back from previous low points.
Dad ‘gouged out’ pal’s eye
A premature baby who weighed just 1lb, Tyson was one of only four survivors of mum Amber’s 14 pregnancies.
Dad John, who had already lost two daughters in premature births, named him after the then heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, because he survived.
When he was nine, his baby sister Romana died a few days after being born, an experience which has haunted him throughout his life.
Tyson – who left school at 11 – was trained in the ring by his dad, himself a boxer.
In 2011 he was devastated when John was jailed for 10 years for gouging out the eye of a former friend in a 12-year feud over a bottle of beer.
Fury’s uncle, Hughie Fury, stepped in to become his trainer in his dad’s absence and the pair were incredibly close.
His dad was released from prison in February 2015 and was ringside for his victorious fight against Wladimir Klitschko in Germany that year.
Double tragedy
Fury found happiness at an early age with wife Paris, who he started dating then they were 16 and 17, and wed in 2008.
The couple have six children, three sons – Prince John James, nine, Prince Tyson II, five, and two-year-old Prince Adonis Amaziah – and three daughters, Venezuela, 12, Valencia Amber, four, and one-year-old Athena.
But the couple suffered a devastating loss in 2014, when Paris was forced to give birth to a dead baby six months into the pregnancy.
Tyson later revealed that, as he was supporting her through the ordeal, his beloved uncle Hughie was dying on the other side of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
The trainer was admitted for a knee operation to put a bolt in his leg, which broke when a caravan drawbar fell on him, but a blood clot travelled to his lung and his heart stopped in surgery, leaving him in a coma for 11 weeks before he passed away.
My wife Paris gave birth to a child at six months old that was dead… We were in one side of the hospital and my uncle Hughie was dying on the other side of the hospital, at the same time
Tyson Fury
The double tragedy triggered addictions to booze and cocaine, and saw Tyson pile on the pounds to the point where he was too unfit to fight.
“My wife Paris gave birth to a child at six months old that was dead,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “I had to be there when she was delivering the baby.
“We were in one side of the hospital and my uncle Hughie was dying on the other side of the hospital, at the same time.
“I stopped myself from thinking about it. I needed to put it to the back of my mind.”
He added that he bottled up his emotions until after his winning clash with Klitschko in 2015, when “it all came tumbling down. All the problems I’d bottled away just exploded”.
Drink and drugs
Struggling with his “demons”, Fury’s weight spiralled to 28st and he turned to drink and drugs, downing up to 18 pints a day.
A rematch with Klitschko, scheduled for 2016, was postponed twice after Fury was declared medically unfit, amid reports he had also tested positive for cocaine.
He told Rolling Stone: “I’m going through a lot of personal demons, trying to shake them off.
“I’ve not been in a gym for months. I’ve been going through depression. I just don’t want to live anymore.
“I’ve been out drinking, Monday to Friday to Sunday, and taking cocaine. I can’t deal with it and the only thing that helps me is when I get drunk out of my mind.”
At one point he drove his Ferrari towards a bridge at 190mph in a desperate bid to end his life.
He said: “I gave up on life but as I was heading to the bridge I heard a voice saying, ‘no don’t do this Tyson; think about your kids, your family, your sons and daughter growing up without a dad’.”
Second baby loss
After relinquishing his world titles, and being stripped of his licence by the British Boxing Board, Tyson sought medical help and was diagnosed as bipolar.
He launched a comeback in 2018 and later revealed throwing himself into training saved his life.
“I have been able to manage my mental health through training and I use it as a medicine,” he said.
“I use structured routine, like a regimented lifestyle. I like to know what I am doing. If I’ve not got certainty in my life, everything seems to go AWOL. My mind starts wandering and I go very unwell again.”
If I’ve not got certainty in my life, everything seems to go AWOL. My mind starts wandering and I go very unwell again
Tyson Fury
Just days before his comeback fight against Sefer Seferi in 2018, Paris tragically suffered another miscarriage.
Fearing the effect on his mental health, Paris decided not to tell him until after the fight.
She said: “I was about eight weeks pregnant. Then on the day of the fight I knew I’d lost our baby. I didn’t mention it to Tyson before he went into the ring.
“Five weeks later we fell pregnant again… We were still heartbroken over our loss, but overjoyed at the same time.”
The birth of Athena last August was fraught with trauma when she “died for three minutes” and was left in intensive care, with Tyson asking fans to pray for her.
The tot was discharged after a few days and left the hospital in a babygrow with the words: “Fighter just like my daddy.”
Paris posted the picture with the caption: “Had scared us all terrible in her first two weeks of life but thankfully she is fit and well and home.”
Mental health fight
Fury’s return to the top was cemented when he defeated Deontay Wilder to win the WBC heavyweight championship of the world in 2020, and reclaim his throne.
The new tragedy in the boxer’s family is sure to cause him immense pain but this time, the grieving boxer will open up about his feelings and says he’s learned that bottling up his emotions never works.
“My mistake was I just suffered in silence and it very nearly killed me,” he says. “Then I started seeking medical help, I wished to God I had done it 15 years earlier.
“I wouldn’t have had to go through a mental breakdown and all the s*** I went through.
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“I am on the other side of it now and I have learned to maintain and manage the problems and I’m living life.
“I never want to go back to that lonely, dark, horrible, grey place where you wake up every morning and think, ‘Why the f*** did I just wake up?’”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
