Fury has been engaged in a war of words with Big Joe Egan, a former professional boxer and one-time sparring partner of Iron Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson pictured with his former sparring partner Joe Egan, who he dubbed ‘the toughest white man on the planet’ (Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)

It began politely enough. “Hello everyone,” said Big Joe Egan in a video message last month.

“I have one last hurrah in me,” the former boxer who Mike Tyson once dubbed the ‘toughest white man on the planet’, went on.

“I haven’t fought in over 20 years. John Fury is my friend and he is a good fighting man, same as myself, a good fighting man and I think the two of us would have a great boxing match.

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“Out in Saudi let’s show them YouTubers and them Saudi royals how two old warriors can perform.”

Challenge issued, Egan, 58, sat back and waited for Fury, 59, to respond. But initially the one time bareknuckle boxer and father of heavyweight champ Tyson Fury was silent.

Perhaps he had enough on his plate. Fury was already embroiled in a war of words with former super-middleweight champion Carl Froch and had previously called out heavyweight legend Iron Mike.

(Image: Getty Images)
But Egan had an ace up his sleeve. He roped in his old sparring partner to turn up the heat.

“John Fury, you’ve got my friend Joe Egan really mad at you, saying you wanted to fight me,” said Tyson in a video posted online. “And he also told me that you told Russell Crowe that he was a fraud. So, Joe Egan is looking for John Fury, okay?

“And if I’m able to see that fight – I hope it’s not in England because I’m a felon, I can’t go to England. But he’s coming for you John Fury, for my honour.”

The son of a Dublin builder and the eldest of seven children, Egan formed his unlikely friendship with one of boxing’s all-time greats in the 80s. The pair came together after Egan, then 17, travelled to the US to train with the Irish Boxing Team.

Egan pictured with Tyson in 2005 (Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)
There he met former heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson who asked him to stay on as a sparring partner for then up and coming prospect Tyson. After sharing the ring for more then two years and living together in New York’s Catskill Gym Egan and Tyson became close pals.

And it was Tyson who gave him the ‘toughest white man’ nickname. It came after their first sparring session, when Egan was only opponent still on his feet after three minutes.

A car crash meant Joe Egan professional boxing career was limited to just three fights (Image: Sunday Mercury)
“If you are going to get battered you might as well get battered by the best,” Egan later said of his sessions with Iron Mike. After turning pro in 1990, Egan’s own own boxing career was cut short by a car accident after just two fights.

He began running a pub in Erdington, Birmingham. But in 1998 the man who stood up to Mike Tyson faced an even more terrifying opponent.

“I had a demand for £500 a week protection money from a racketeering gang in Birmingham,” he told The Sun. “After telling them no, the following week, on July 26, 1998, they attacked my pub.

Tyson delivering his video message to John Fury
“There were 37 of them armed with handguns, shotguns, machetes. It was a horrific day.”

Egan was shot in the arm and nose, and in the aftermath was charged with attempted murder, but cleared after a trial.

Weighed down by legal bills, his business went under and, at the same time, his fiancée Lisa Murphy left him for Lord of the Dance star Michael Flatley. It was a tough time and, facing ruin, Egan says he got ‘involved in criminality’

In 2001, he was jailed for two and half years for his part in an international car-ringing gang. “My business was failing and I ran out of money so I got involved with crime to pay for my legal fees,” he told The Sun.

Joe Egan (right) pictured after fighting Lennox Lewis (left) in 1985 (Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)
“The only time I saw my dad cry was because I was going to prison. The shame I had, the disgust I had for myself, the hurt and pain I had caused him, I was so ashamed of myself.”

On his release Egan made a brief return to the ring, winning his comeback fight in Dublin aged 38, before turning his hand to acting. He was cast as a boxer by Guy Ritchie for the film Sherlock opposite Robert Downey Jnr and went on to appear in Prize Fighter with Russell Crowe and several TV shows.

Fast forward to the present day and his friend Tyson’s message to John Fury appears to have struck a nerve. Earlier this month Fury responded.

In a video posted on X, Fury agreed to fight Egan, but only if KSI pays him £200,000 he claims he’s owed from a bet on the YouTuber’s fight against Tom my Fury last October. “OK Joe Egan, here is where it’s at,” said Fury. “I’m not hard to do business with, mate.

“And at the end of the day, like you say you want to make a few quid and I will fight anybody if it makes business sense.

Fury has agreed to the fight – on one condition (Image: Getty Images)
“So here’s what they’ve got to do, because I said I’d never do any more business with that rat, ever. But you’re there going on, on the internet making yourself busy, now it’s personal, Joe.

“Because at the end of the day, you better hope he does back you for millions because you’re gonna have to fight me anyway when you see me, ain’t you, for being disrespectful.

“What he needs to do then is put an offer in writing to me, what he is prepared to pay me to fight you. Being disrespectful, you’re going to have to fight me anyway when you see me.

“Let’s hope you can so you can get a few quid out of it, because when I see you it’s coats off. Here’s what you’ve got to do, wire me my £200,000 but if you don’t do that forget about it, because I wouldn’t even p*** on the both of you.

“Joe, you’re going to have to fight me when you see me. So let’s hope they can, so we can make a few quid out of it. Because when I see you, mate it’s coats off, telling you now.”