Tyson Fury became the eighth world heavyweight champion after a shocking triumph over Wladimir Klitschko to add his name to a list of boxing greats.
The undefeated heavyweight champion pocketed a whooping sum of £4m fortune for his for the WBO, IBF and WBA champion win over Wladimir Klitschko in Gemany.
The fight is worth a whopping thirty million pounds (£30m) when all the pay-per-view revenues and ticket sales are summed up making Fury earn biggest payday money of his boxing career.
But the Manchester man insists he is not bothered about the cash.
“I’m doing this fight, not for money, not for paying, not for glory.
“I’m doing this fight because I want to show everybody, how to beat a man who can’t be beaten basically.
“If they said to me, ‘You can win this fight but you’re not going to get any belts or no money’ I’d say, ‘Okay, no problem, let’s still do it because it’s not about that for me’.
“It’s about winning and beating somebody who ‘can’t be beaten’ because there’s not many people who believe I can win on Saturday night.”
Fury win over Klitschko has registered his name among the big names like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for becoming the first man to end Klitschko’s in 11 years unbeaten career.
He said: “The way I am, I could be one of the most famous sporting stars in the country or in the world.
“A win over Wladimir Klitschko puts me right up there with all them players.”
The British professional boxer completed an incredible rise through the ranks for an extremely complex individual, the self-styled boxer who was born into a family of Irish traveller heritage.
Born three months premature and weighed only one-pound and narrowly surviving as an infant. He has overcome feuds with Derek Chisora and Kevin Johnson in the ring, but his magnificent win over the Ukrainian Klitschko was his biggest professional triumph.
Speaking after Saturday’s fight, Fury said it was his destiny to become heavyweight world champion.
“Ask any member of my family – we’ve always known,’ he said.
“My brother Shane and I used to spar with each other in the kitchen. We didn’t have gloves, so we wrapped tea towels around our hands.
“Along with cousin Andy Lee he is leading a legion of Gypsy fighters and is proud of his roots.”
The 27-year-old celebrated his victory on points by singing Aerosmith classic “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing’ to his pregnant wife, Paris in the ring, giving an insight into his colourful character.
He met Paris when they were 15 at a mutual friend’s wedding, getting together at the age of 16. Fury abided by the Irish traveller’s strict code of conduct and slept in a caravan while she slept inside her parents’ home before their marriage six years ago.
The couple have a five-year-old daughter called Venezuela and a three-year-old son Prince, even though Tyson, who said God gave him the ability to beat Klitschko, wanted to name him Jesus.
If you hadn’t heard of Fury before this year, his entrance to the pre-fight news conference in September dressed, as Batman would have brought him to your attention. He was bold and more than a little bit wacky. He earned a new legion of fans after ending Klitschko’s nine-year reign.
He compared his fight against Klitschko to David v. Goliath, calling the 39-year-old a ‘devil worshipper’ before the fight.
‘David’ claimed victory in Dusseldorf, launching several blows to Goliath in his home stadium. Fury was a man possessed from the outset, running at Klitschko from round one.
Fury was named Tyson after world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. ‘Iron Mike’ was in the prime of his career when Fury was born in 1988.
His current net worth is estimated to be around $25 million and that is not taking his recent win against ‘Klitschko’
His father, ‘Gypsy’ John Fury, a former bare-knuckle fighter and then pro heavyweight boxer, served a prison sentence for assault – he gouged a man’s eye out after a 12-year feud over a bottle of beer.
But Tyson does not see himself as a violent man, insisting he has never been involved in a scuffle outside the ring.
Anthony Nlebem
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