Behind the Mask

by Fury, Tyson

  But I still had a job to do and it seemed to be overlooked that Schwarz was unbeaten and ranked number two by the WBO, particularly when that organisation had ranked me at number four. I knew how hungry he would be, and I knew how he must have felt to have been written off, like I had been before so many big fights – against Wilder, Klitschko and further back to my first fight with Dereck Chisora. Yet on that night in Vegas I would have smashed anybody. I felt so sharp and so focused on giving a spectacular display.

  After strolling into the ring with the Stars and Stripes hat and shorts on, I delivered a show to match my entrance. Credit to Schwarz, he came and he had a go but I took him apart. Two of my shots in the second round smashed up his nose, and then with a minute to go he came charging at me and I showed off my defensive skills. As Schwarz threw eight straight punches, I made him miss with every one of them, and then responded with a nice little body shot of my own. About ten seconds later Schwarz was on the canvas for the first time in his career, from a fast right hand. He got up but he was finished and as I unloaded, the referee called a halt with six seconds remaining of the second round.

  I know that going into the fight Ben had wanted me to use my boxing skills to gradually break down Schwarz, but I just wanted a devastating performance so I was heavy-handed from the opening bell. I held my feet more firmly so that I could generate more power and everyone saw the effect. I had added a little extra weight as well, and my punches were damaging. I know how well I can box and I can use my defensive skills when I need them, but this was a night to show people that if I have to stand and trade and have a war, then I’m ready. Because I have the dynamite to do serious damage when called upon.

  I spread out my arms in celebration as the fans went wild. At ringside my promoter Bob Arum couldn’t keep the smile off his face. As he said to me afterwards, ‘You couldn’t have written your first night in Vegas any better.’ In the ring, to finish off, I sang to Paris the same Aerosmith song I had sung to her after I had defeated Klitschko – ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’. When you go to Vegas you have to entertain and that’s what I did. Bob said that I was a mixture of the second coming of Muhammad Ali, and George Foreman during his amazing comeback when he took the heavyweight title from Michael Moorer at the age of forty-five.

  But as far as I was concerned I was just Tyson Fury, the Gypsy King, because I don’t believe there has ever been a heavyweight like me. I was there to have fun and I enjoyed every moment of fight week in Las Vegas. It was pure entertainment from start to finish and that’s what the fans had wanted. The reaction from ESPN was terrific: the viewing figures were great, and social media went crazy for my ring entrance and the finish to the fight. In the press conference afterwards, Bob was already talking about the rematch with Wilder breaking all box-office records: ‘When the time comes we’ll help sell it but we have the best salesman sitting between us,’ he quipped as we sat addressing the media. The entertainment continued right up until the end of the press conference when I even got Frank Warren and Bob Arum to join in as we sang ‘American Pie’ to close the Vegas experience. Bob admitted that in all his fifty-five years’ experience of boxing he hadn’t seen anything like it, and he certainly hadn’t been part of a trio at the end of a press conference!

  The after-party was held in the Hakkasan restaurant inside the MGM and there were around 4,000 fans in there, with 200 VIP guests. There was such a party atmosphere, and I even got on the mic and gave them a few songs before going to bed. The support I had received from the fans who had travelled over from the UK, along with the Americans who had packed into the MGM, was hugely appreciated. Off the back of the Wilder fight and this win over Schwarz, it really felt like the whole world had finally awakened to everything that I believed I could bring to the sport of boxing. But most importantly it was just a great time for my family and friends who had stuck by me throughout my roller-coaster journey. And it all seemed a very long way away from the shy little boy playing netball at primary school to be headlining in Las Vegas, so I felt very thankful that I could enjoy this time.

  This was a new dawn for my career and for my life generally, because there was a real sense of purpose and direction to everything that I was doing. Not for a moment was I going to take anything for granted, because I knew more than most how quickly things can change in this business. But as I left Las Vegas on the Monday morning I believed that whatever else I wanted to achieve in boxing, the opportunity was going to be presented to me – and I was certainly ready to grab it with both fists.

  . . .

  The path to a second fight with Deontay Wilder was clear, and word came through quite quickly that it would continue in Vegas. My new promoter Bob Arum was working hard behind the scenes with the Wilder camp to see how and when a deal could be agreed. The fact that I was now aligned with American channel ESPN and Wilder was linked to cable channel Showtime meant it could have been difficult to find a way to agree terms – a lot of big fights have stalled because of fighters being on different television channels. One of the biggest fights in history, between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, only happened because Showtime and HBO agreed to simultaneously screen it as a pay-per-view event.

  But Arum and his Top Rank team got a deal done and Wilder and I were placed on a course that would lead to our rematch on 22 February 2020 in Las Vegas. A third fight had also been agreed because the interest in the two best heavyweights in the world going head to head was so great. With that in place, Arum set me up for a return to the ring on 14 September, at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas.

  My opponent was going to be another unbeaten fighter, Sweden’s Otto Wallin. Even though he hadn’t lost a fight and was ranked number four by the World Boxing Association and eleven by the International Boxing Federation, two of the four major governing bodies, as a choice of opponent he came in for criticism in some quarters. Often people who have not seen a fighter assume he is not up to scratch but I knew that he was a good fighter and I wasn’t going to be taking him for granted. He had done a good bit of sparring with Anthony Joshua and the word around the gyms was that he had done very well.

  I’ve learned not to worry what others say because whenever you step into the ring there are always risks. So I trained as hard as ever for Wallin and spent five weeks in a house in Vegas as we counted down to the fight. There were plenty of media and publicity commitments as there always are, and that included a joint interview with the man I had been named after, former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. We had met for the first time in 2016 and shared a few phone calls after that. He’s a guy with his own troubles, and he’s had plenty of trauma in his life that I could relate to. But the man is a living legend and I couldn’t believe we were sharing laughs and opening up to each other.

  In the week of the fight I embraced the fact that it was the annual celebration of Mexican independence. The Mexicans have a rich fighting history and I was keen to show my respect to them. So in their honour I donned a Mexican bandana and Lucha Libre wrestling mask for the public workout! The fans seemed to really enjoy it, and during my time leading up to the fight the Mexican people gave me such a good reception.

  Everything was going to plan, and even the Mexican journalists were enjoying the Gypsy King show now as well. In a press conference I had suggested that I’d been trying to learn some Spanish and so one of the Mexican reporters decided to wrong-foot me by asking a long question. After thanking him for the question, I smiled and quipped, ‘Yes, I also like big cuddly toys and crayons!’, which had the room in stitches. The fight, though, was not going to go as smoothly as I hoped – far from it – and I was the one who would literally be in stitches by the end of the night.

  . . .

  With a poncho and a sombrero, I entered the T-Mobile Arena on Mexican Independence Day blowing kisses to the packed crowd. After two decent rounds I felt that I was in control, but then in an instant everything changed. With about fifty seconds to go in round three, Wallin caught me with a short
left hook and it opened up by far the worst cut I’ve ever had in my career, over my right eye. My trainer Ben would later say that it was one of the worst cuts he’d ever seen, too. This was a crisis. The referee said it was an accidental head clash but then broadcaster ESPN, in between rounds, informed Ben that it had been caused by a punch. That was critical because it meant that if the fight was stopped, Wallin would be declared the winner.

  Things went from bad to worse when in the fourth round I sustained another cut, this time on my right eyelid. My cuts man Jorge Capetillo did a miraculous job but from the third round onwards I was worried that referee Tony Weeks would stop the fight. The blood continued to pour into my right eye, which meant that I could only see properly out of my left. My pre-fight game-plan now went out the window, and I had to make the decision to get up close and personal with Wallin because that way the referee wouldn’t have long periods to look at the cut and maybe then decide to stop the match.

  All I was thinking about was getting through to the end, making sure I did enough to win each round. Wallin was now going for it, throwing the kitchen sink at me and rubbing his gloves in the cut. There was a scary moment in the sixth round when the ringside doctor took time to examine the cut. He had the right to call off the fight but I told him, ‘I can see, let’s go’, and I got back to work.

  This was a test of my character and conditioning, and I showed Wallin that even with one eye I wouldn’t be beaten. At the end of the ninth round I caught him with some heavy shots and that continued at the start of the tenth. Some fighters would have gone on the defensive with that sort of damage to their eye but I took the fight to the Swede and rocked him to his boots. This is what champions do when the chips are down. I hurt him again at the end of the eleventh. But credit to Wallin, he dug deep and a big left hook caught me in the final round. I finished the fight with a sea of blood around my left eye. Wallin was exhausted, having fought the fight of his life, and the referee’s shirt was smothered in my blood and sweat. Thankfully, there were no tears, and I won the fight on points with a unanimous decision from the judges. However, back home my dad John, who was working for BT Sport, was getting very emotional and at the end of the fight called for my whole team to be sacked.

  It had been another night of drama and it ended with me visiting the local hospital. The cut over my right eye was so bad that I didn’t have time to do any media; I had to be taken to the hospital so that it could be examined and fixed up. My cuts man Jorge had done such a good job that I gave him a bonus, but now I needed a whole team to repair the damage. I didn’t just want the doctor to work on it, so we had to wait for an hour for the surgeon to come from his home. He got to work, put in almost fifty stitches and after twenty minutes it was job done. At first I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take to heal properly but he told me just two weeks, which was great news because it meant that my date with Wilder on 22 February was still on.

  After winning $5,000 at the casino the next morning, it was time to head back home. But it wouldn’t be long before I was back in the States after I received an invitation to take part in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

  I wouldn’t be fighting Wilder for a while and I’d always been a fan of the WWE, the way they put on a real show for the public. So when the opportunity came I just thought, ‘Why not?’ We made a family holiday out of it in October, and Paris and I and the five children flew out to Orlando, Florida, to the WWE’s Performance Center. There the wrestlers train and learn how to look after themselves in the ring, and I can confirm that it’s a lot more intense than people would think – and pretty sore on the back!

  From there we headed up to the Staples Center in Los Angeles – the scene of my fight with Wilder – to be at ringside for the WWE SmackDown. For my son Prince it was a dream come true. He plays WWE on his PlayStation every single day and when he got to meet the superstars backstage, including The Rock, it was amazing for him. I was the best dad ever!

  When we got to ringside one of the big names, Braun Strowman, gave me a stare and put up his fists, as if to say he was up for a fight. I skipped over the barricade and the sell-out crowd went wild as the security held me back. A few nights later we were at another event, WWE Raw, and after I demanded an apology from Strowman it all kicked off as we both brawled with security guards in the ring. Prince and my daughter Venezuela were loving it, too, and when the WWE announced that I would be facing Strowman in Saudi Arabia on 31 October, Prince couldn’t believe it. His dad would be fighting the guys he pretends to be on PlayStation.

  Before that was possible, I had to go through some rigorous training. To be honest it was brutal. I would spend a couple of hours with a special professional coach who would show me how I would have to deal with being thrown into the corners, which was like being hit against steel wire. We would work on drop kicks and other moves including being tossed onto my back. The first couple of days I came away aching, covered in bruises.

  When I signed the deal with the WWE owner Vince McMahon, I thought it was just going to be a bit of fun, but I ended up working more intensely than ever because not only were we training hard but also flying all over the States. I had to base the family in Orlando, while I was getting on flights – for example, at 3am to Denver, Colorado, to promote the event on 31 October and then back to Florida before flying out the next day to Los Angeles. The schedule was hectic, like nothing I had experienced before, and I couldn’t believe just how big WWE is in the States and around the world. Sell-out stadiums everywhere you go and a reputed one billion fans.

  So on the horizon I had the challenge of facing the so-called ‘Monster Among Men’ in the wrestling ring. Then it would be full steam ahead for the biggest boxing event in the world, Fury–Wilder II in 2020.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Bigger than Boxing

  The dark cloud of depression will always hang over me, wanting to rain poison on to my head. That’s the way it is going to be until the day I die. But, now more than ever, I realise why I had to go through what I did all those years leading up to, and even more so after, the victory over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. And I also know why the battle must go on because I can now see my true purpose in this life. By the grace of God, I have been placed in a position, on a worldwide stage through boxing, to be able to help others, and that means so much more to me than what I’ve ever done in the ring. I’m not interested in winning more belts. I would be quite happy to walk away after another three fights and start the next chapter of my life.

  In fact, this process of moving beyond boxing has already started because I have been blown away by the reaction I’ve had to my story, from people all over the world. The whole issue of mental health, of individuals finding the ability and the courage to admit their feelings, and the need for governments to take it much more seriously, is developing all the time. If I can play some small part in this conversation, and in helping even one person change their path in life, that would mean more to me than any victory with a pair of gloves.

  I feel very humbled by how people have responded to hearing my story. I have even learned this year that my trainer Ben Davison has also suffered from depression, and that’s one of the reasons why he has been so good for me during my comeback: he can read the signs in me when I’m not in a great place, and he knows exactly how to respond. Crucially, Ben has understood me. He knows how to get the best out of me in the gym, and he works hard at making sure that my media commitments don’t become too much. Sometimes we will start a gym session that he has planned for that day and within five minutes he’ll stop and say that’s enough, because he can see that I’m just not in the right place to do what he wants me to. We’ll just rest and talk, but one thing that must happen every day is that I have to train – I have to do something to keep my mind in a positive place. I also feel that when I have trained I have earned the right to eat. That’s part of my medicine and it has to be taken.

  An example of all of this was in the lead-up to the fight wit
h Tom Schwarz in Las Vegas in June 2019. We had flown in late from New York to Los Angeles and even though I was tired I wanted to go and train. Ben could see in my eyes the real need for this to happen. The logical thing for 90 per cent of boxers would have been to rest and recover for the next day’s training, but for me to be in the right frame of mind I had to work out. So, Ben and I went and did a light workout and that meant the next day I was ready to go and work even harder.

  Ben had his own mental health issues years ago when he found it hard to get out of bed and was in a bad psychological place. Incredibly, only a couple of weeks before I called him to help me return to the ring, he was suffering from a particularly bad bout of depression. He has admitted that if I had called him then, he wouldn’t have been able to train me. Ben wondered on many occasions, as I had, why he had been put through the things that had happened in his life that led him into depression. Then, with the call I made to him and the role he has played in my return to the ring and my personal journey, it has come to make sense to him.

  Ben can read me like a book because he has been there; maybe not to the same extremes, and he didn’t have the public looking in on his problems, but the issues were essentially the same. As Ben says, God doesn’t make mistakes and the timing was right for the both of us when we started to work together in 2017.

  While training is paramount to keeping me in balance, I also have an app on my phone that lets me know the number of days in a row I have read my Bible. There’s a passage each day that I read and if I don’t then the counter returns to zero and I have to start over again. Reading my Bible every day is very important to me and helps my state of mind in a significant way. In our Travellers culture there is a healthy fear of God and I was always brought up going to church. My uncle Ernie was a preacher and from a young age I was intrigued by the Bible, which has answers to the world’s problems and sets out guidelines for how society should be. My faith has been a pillar throughout my life and has been critical in my battle with mental health. I listened a lot to Ernie’s sermons at different conventions and we would sit and have long discussions about the Bible; he was a good teacher and I learned a lot from him. I know in my life I have made some big mistakes but I’m also acutely aware of the forgiveness of God. The world could do with a lot more awareness of that because it just seems that the negative judgementalism that we see in the world, particularly on social media, is sending people into a depressive state, and so many young people in particular seem to be suffering because they can’t handle the criticism and abuse.