“Your son is going to be alright. I’m going to call you tomorrow in the morning, and your son is going to be here.”

Tyson Fury, pictured with dad John in London, back in 2015 (Image: Getty Images)

Tyson Fury took on Oleksandr Usyk in a bid to become the 21st century’s undisputed heavyweight champion of the world last night.

And along the journey the Wilmslow-born fighter and his clan, whose family were well-known in Greater Manchester before they became celebrities, have been through some truly dramatic moments.

There’s been plenty of controversy – and at times heartbreak. But through it all the Furys have had an unshakeable belief in themselves and God.

Here we take a look back at just some of the Fury family’s most dramatic moments away from the ring

John Fury insuring his testicles for £10m

In 2022, Tyson’s dad John Fury claimed he had insured his ‘nuts’ for £10m, reasoning ‘(I) breed some kings, I do’.

“Believe me there is good stuff that comes out of them,” the father-of-six said. “I’ve got world champion nuts in these trousers – breed some kings, I do. There are only champions coming out of these nuts – it’s been proven hasn’t it? All my sons can fight – not just Tyson.”

Eye gouging

John Fury was jailed after he left fellow Traveller Oathie Sykes half-blind when a decade-long grudge erupted in bloody violence at a car auction at Belle Vue. The pair had been pals, but had had a violent bust-up over a bottle of beer during a trip to Cyprus in 1999.

When they crossed paths at British Car Auctions in July 2010, the simmering feud erupted once more. Mr Sykes told Manchester Crown Court Fury approached him with his ‘chest up’ and asked: “What about me and you finishing that fight?”

After Fury, who boxed professionally in the 80s under the name Gypsy John, allegedly claimed ‘I’m the best man here in the auction, I’m the best man in the country’, the pair traded punches, lurching between cars.

John Fury pictured after being jailed
Fury grabbed Mr Sykes by his shoulder-length hair and gripped him in a headlock. “It was like he was trying to pull his finger into my brains through my socket,” Mr Sykes said. “I was screaming, ‘Please stop, you’re hurting me.’

“After that he tried to take my other eye – he tried to blind me, sir, not once he tried to blind me, twice.”

With Tyson looking on from the public gallery, Fury, then of Wilmslow, begged the judge for mercy after admitting a charge of GBH. “I’m worried about my son,” he said as he choked back the tears.

“His boxing career is on the line.” Referring to Mr Sykes, he added: “If I could give my own eye to him to get back to my children I would do – I’m begging you for my life.”

His tearful pleas fell on his deaf ears. Sending him down for 11 years Judge Michael Henshell said Fury had been ‘cold-blooded’ in inflicting the ‘catastrophic injury’.

Seeing Jesus in a Strangeways prison cell

“Jesus has come through for me that many times when things have got rough — more times than I can remember,” John Fury writes in his autobiography When Fury Takes Over. And when, one morning two years into his sentence, he received a phone call from Tyson, explaining his one-year-old son Prince was fighting for his life in hospital after coming down with meningitis, Fury credits his belief with helping his grandson pull through.

“I said: “Listen, son, they told me you were going to die, so that’s rubbish,” he writes. “Your son is going to be alright. I’m going to call you tomorrow in the morning, and your son is going to be here.”

After reading the Bible and praying for his grandson’s survival, Fury claims in the early hours of the following day Jesus spoke to him in his cell. “My eyes open suddenly,” he writes.

“At the bottom end of the bed stands the figure of a man, and though I can’t see his face in much detail, I know it is the shape of Jesus. Then with a voice as clear as a bell, the figure says: “Everything will be OK.”

“Pure joy passes through me, like someone has just told me that I’m to be released from my prison sentence in the morning. It’s four o’clock in the morning and I feel like bursting out into song!

“At 6.45am I call Tyson to see how his boy is. “Everything’s all right, isn’t it, son?” “Yes, Dad, it is. You were right again. He came right in the night — some time between 3 and 4am.”

“After that moment, I sailed through the rest of my sentence.”

Peter Fury

Tyson’s uncle and one-time trainer Peter Fury was once a major player in Stockport’s underworld and has been open about his regrets, urging young people not to repeat his mistakes.

As a racketeer in the 1990s, Peter is said to have faced down the town’s one-time Mr Big, the even more notorious Chris Little.

Involved in wholesale drug importation from the continent, Fury was also a feared enforcer who would travel around Europe collecting huge debts on behalf of his clients.

Peter Fury (left) allegedly crossed swords with Stockport gang boss Chris Little in the early 90s
By his mid-20s, he was smuggling vast amounts of amphetamine from Belgium, which he transferred to an industrial unit in Helmshore, Rossendale, where it was prepared for distribution. In 1994 he was spotted collecting a rucksack in a remote lay-by. It held 10kg of speed worth £1.5m. Another 2kg was found in an accomplice’s Land Rover. In 1995 the case came to court.

Fury, then 27, claimed he made his money from selling used cars, boxing and bare knuckle fighting. He was described as a man of ‘considerable intelligence’, who was involved in complex business deals using bank accounts in America, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Spain and Ireland. He was jailed for 10 years for possession of amphetamine with intent to supply.

When he came out, his life of crime continued where it left off. In 2008 he was jailed for two years for drug-related money laundering. Later he was ordered to pay back around £700,000 in assets he managed to conceal from the courts. It was only after his second release from prison he became a boxing mentor to his nephew Tyson.

Barred from New Zealand

Peter Fury’s brushes with the law resulted in him initially being declined entry to New Zealand in 2017. Fury was due to be in the corner for his son Hughie’s world heavyweight title scrap with Joshua Parker.

But immigration officials refused to grant the trainer a visa because of his previous criminal convictions. It eventually took the intervention of immigration minister David Bennett to grant special dispensation for Fury to enter the country, saying ‘This is a national sporting event with worldwide interest’.

Mental health struggles

Thousands of people signed a petition urging the BBC to remove Tyson Fury from the shortlist for the Sports Personality of the Year Award
Tyson Fury has spoken at length on a number of occasions about his mental health struggles. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2017..

After defeating Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 to become world heavyweight champion his struggles with depression led to a two-and-a-half-year break from boxing. Speaking in 2022 he said: “It’s frightening to imagine how many people out there are suffering in silence and don’t know who to turn to, like me; I was in a lonely, dark place forever.

“I didn’t know who to turn to or where to go, I didn’t know anyone with any education on the matter. Who was I going to tell? Who wasn’t going to laugh at me and think I was a pathetic, weak person? That was the stigma in my mind.

“For sure [there was an element of shame and embarrassment]. At that time, I was a man who had everything the world had to offer – money, fame, glory, achievements, family – but I still felt like dying on a daily basis, and I didn’t know why.”

Controversial remarks

Tyson Fury caused outrage with comments he made before and after his stunning win over Klitschko in Germany in 2015 that led to him being accused of sexism and homophobia.

As a result, thousands of people signed a petition urging the BBC to remove him from the shortlist for the Sports Personality of the Year Award.

He later apologised, saying: “I would like to put on record that I am not homophobic. I have homosexual friends and I do not judge them because of their sexuality. My comments that you may have read are from the holy scriptures, and this is what I live from.”

Daniel Kinahan

In 2020 and in 2022 Tyson Fury was pictured with alleged Irish crime boss Daniel Kinahan. Fury had previously praised Kinahan, a founder of boxing management company MTK Global, during eventually aborted negotiations over a two fight deal with fellow British heavyweight Anthony Joshua.

In April 2022 the US ambassador to Ireland, Claire Cronin, revealed that the department of the treasury was offering a reward of $5m for information leading to the arrest of the Kinahan organised crime group.

It came after the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Kinahan and another six of the group’s alleged ringleaders – banning banks and other companies from doing business with them. Fury later described the sanctions as ‘none of my business’ and said he had not had any dealings with Kinahan ‘for a long time’.

Denied entry to US

Tommy Fury (Image: Francois Nel/Getty Images)
In June 2023 Tommy Fury’s fight with Jake Paul was cancelled for a second time after the Brit was refused entry into the United States. The Love Island star revealed that he had been denied entry after being stopped at Heathrow Airport.

Their fight was due to take place at the Madison Square Garden on August 6. In a post on Instagram Fury said that his ESTA – which is needed to get into the US – had been rejected.

“So I just want to come on here and set the record straight before anyone else tries to,” he said. “Me and my team this morning arrived at Heathrow Airport ready for the press conference, ready to fly out.

“As soon as I entered the airport I got pulled to one side and I was told by a Homeland security officer that was there that my ESTA had been denied and I wasn’t able to travel to the USA for a reason that I apparently know. I can stand here and say I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong and I have no clue why I am not allowed to travel to the USA.”

The fight eventually took place in February 2023 in Saudi Arabia.

John Fury, father of Tyson Fury, with blood on his face after an incident in the build-up to Saturday’s fight (Image: PA)

Bloodied

John Fury was left bloodied in a clash with a member of Oleksandr Usyk’s team in the build-up to Saturday’s fight. Video captured one of Usyk’s entourage going face-to-face with John, with chants of ‘Fury’ and ‘Usyk’ being led by the respective teams.

John could then be seen turning his attention to another member of Usyk’s team and thrusting his head forward, leaving blood pouring down from his own forehead. Security was forced to step between the two camps and keep them apart as John lunged at Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk.

“We can’t be beaten, anywhere we go. We are spartans, let’s f****ng go. Yous will get it, I live for this s***. Blood, guts and horror. I live for this s***,” he said.

John Fury (far left) challenged Mike Tyson (far right) during a press conference ahead of the Tyson Fury v Francis Ngannou fight in October 2023 (Image: Getty Images)

Beef with Mike Tyson

Despite having named his son after him, late last year John Fury called out Mike Tyson for a fight. During the build-up to Tyson Fury’s fight with Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia, the two boxers took to the stage for a press conference alongside Fury snr and Mike Tyson, who had helped train Ngannou.

In typical fashion Fury Snr soon took centre stage by challenging Iron Mike to a scrap, claiming he feared no man in the world. “You know what, give me a special mention,” he said.

“The man who bred him, John Fury, fears no man on Earth. No matter what they’ve done, no matter what the accolades.

“Here I am! Any man alive want to fight John Fury, I’m here and ready to go, Mike Tyson, what have you got to say to that, my brother?”

For his part Mike Tyson, once the most feared boxer on the planet, seemed unperturbed. “Yeah, all day baby!” he replied.