1 week Ago By Harvey Burton, Bloody Knockout
Tyson Fury is known for his world title wins over Deontay Wilder and Wladimir Klitschko, but he didn’t always seem destined to go to such lengths. Tyson Fury announced his retirement for what certainly isn’t the first, but may well be the last time after his losses to Oleksandr Usyk in his last two fights. He leaves behind a great career with world title wins over Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder , as well as wins over Dillian Whyte , Francis Ngannou , and Otto Wallin, who bloodied Fury with a horror cut.
He’s come a long way since the early days of his career, which saw Fury punch himself in the face as well as almost suffer a career-defining loss in an English title contest. Tyson Fury’s closest fight came at the lowest level of his career In 2009 Fury faced John McDermott for the English heavyweight title. It was Fury’s first ten-rounder and first time going the distance in his career thus far.
McDermott was 25-5 at the time to Fury’s 7-0 and had won the English title three fights prior, but lost it in two consecutive losses to Danny Williams. There were no judges for the fight, just the referee scoring, which turned out to be controversial given the final decision. After a highly close fight, many felt that McDermott would actually come out as the victor, with Sky Sports even posting the highlights of the fight with the title ‘The fight Tyson Fury lost?’ However, the referee scored the fight 98-92 in favor of Fury, but a rematch was soon ordered, this time with three judges instead of just the referee.
Fury came in better for the rematch, dropping McDermott multiple times before securing a ninth-round stoppage. John McDermott still believes he beat Tyson Fury in their first encounter In an interview with IFL TV five years ago, McDermott spoke on the infamous night against Fury, stating that he believed, and still believes, he was the rightful winner all those years ago: “I thought I won it quite easily but I knew it’d be a good fight. As soon as you got the ring with him, you knew he was something special.
” McDermott harbored no ill will towards Fury though, and gave him praise for his ability to bounce back after suffering what could’ve been a career-ending period of depression and poor lifestyle choices. Fury has been open about suffering with depression after his win over Klitschko, and it was three years before he returned to the ring after that fight. McDermott said: “If he never boxed again and he just got himself clean and lost weight I’d give him [respect] for that, but to come back and do what he did I think is tremendous, I think it’s amazing.
” This article first appeared on Bloody Knockout and was syndicated with permission..
