Tyson Fury may be about to take part in one of the biggest boxing clashes of all time as he gears up to face Oleksandr Usyk – but he once had to ply his trade in a very different profession.
The 35 year-old is just hours away from facing Usyk in a winner-takes-all fight in which the victor will walk away with all four belts and become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999. However, on the eve of the huge showdown, Fury has revealed that he came from humble beginnings and that he used to earn a living as a car trader.
As per GB News, Fury also added that his dalliance with cars was just not just a way to put bread on the table but also a favoured pastime of his. He said: "Before I was boxing I was a car trader. While I’ve been boxing I’ve been messing around with cars. It’s my hobby."
Fury is no stranger to being involved in the brokering of multi-million pound boxing deals but he also divulged that his love of the business world stemmed from his time as a car dealer. He added: “I love a deal, whether it’s for 10p or 10 grand or 10 million, whatever. I love having a deal."
Perhaps unsurprisingly for the showboating fighter they call the 'The Gypsy King', the heavyweight fighter also disclosed his first car purchase and that he bought the vehicle when he was just 10 years old. Fury said: "My first car was a 1997 Fiat Fiorino. I paid £360 for it. That was my first car that I was driving about in.
"But I actually bought my first car when I was ten-years-old. It was a Renault Clio and I bought it from three doors down and I sold it for a profit. I bought it for £60 and sold it for £110 on the same day. So I’ve been buying and selling my whole life."
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Fury is adamant that despite his wealth and status his children will learn from the same humble beginnings as he did and to respect the value of the things they earn, he elaborated: “Another lesson I like to do is, in the summertime, we always wash the cars down, maybe every other day. I ask the kids why we do it and my little boy will say ‘we wash these because things are hard to earn, dad, and we’ve got to look after our things haven’t we?’ And I say ‘yep, we have, well done son'.”
Fury's mega clash with Usyk, set to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday, May 18, has got the whole of the boxing world talking. And yet, despite exchanging a few ugly barbs early on, Fury has now broke with the tradition of trash talking ahead of their fight with the WBC Champion dispensing some kind words about his Ukrainian opponent. Speaking about Usyk at the pre-fight press conference, Fury said: "As a fighter he’s done everything that can be done so you have to respect him.
“He’s come from Ukraine, I don’t know from what sort of background but probably a poor one. He’s done fantastic, just like Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua, Joseph Parker, myself. We’ve all done fantastic, we are multimillionaires who changed our stars for the better. You have to respect him and admire him."
Fury conceded that he doesn't really know his opponent for Saturday night but claimed the 'family man' won't mind what people think of him once the dust has settled in Riyadh with the Ukrainian set to earn a small fortune for the bout. Fury added: "I don’t really know him as a man because I’ve never been out with him for a beer. But from what I’ve seen he’s a family man. I can 100 per cent sit here and say, me or Usyk, when we sit back and we’re finished, we’re not going to be thinking about some idiot who said it was a good, bad or indifferent fight.
“I don’t think he’ll be bothered what people think of him when he’s getting a fortune on the world’s biggest stage. I always say, unless you’ve been a boxer who has won world championships then you can’t run people down.”
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are set to lock horns in a huge bout on May 18 with each fighter attempting to etch their name in boxing history as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999. The stakes couldn't be higher as the pair will go head to head for the prestigious WBC, WBA, WBO, and IBF titles.