Tyson Fury claims that his first-ever fight was in a neighbours' garden, with his key memory being that his trousers kept falling down.
The world champion has managed to win every heavyweight belt a British boxer can win in the sport and is one of the greatest fighters of his generation. However, it was a long way from the bright lights of Las Vegas arenas and Wembley Stadium that he had his first ever scrap; taking on a neighbour in their garden.
At just nine years old, Fury was approached by his next door neighbours, who asked him if he'd be interested in fighting with their younger brother. There was no issue between the pair and the siblings didn't attempt to fabricate one; they just got the duo to come together for a bit of fun.
"When you've got lots of male relatives and stuff all of a similar age, you're always fighting," Fury explained during an appearance on IFL TV's The Fight Within podcast. "But I remember having a fight with my next door neighbour, the two bigger brothers set it up and they said to me, 'Do you want to fight the lad next door?'. I said, 'If you want'. I was about 10 - nine I was!
"No reason, they set it up for a bit of fun for the older brothers. We went round and we had a little dust-up on the front lawn for no apparent reason. My trousers kept falling down, I had a pair of Donald Duck tracksuit bottoms on with no string in them and they kept falling down every time I tried to throw punches - my pants kept falling down. That was the first proper fight I ever had, it was for no reason, just for sport."
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Fury ended up getting a handle on fighting and decided to take on boxing from a young age. He rose through the amateur ranks, but was unable to compete at the Olympics due to David Price being selected at his weight class instead, so he decided to become a professional.
In the paid ranks, he's never lost a fight - drawing just once in a controversial world heavyweight title fight against Deontay Wilder, who he would go on to knock out twice in their rematches. He dethroned the legendary Wladimir Klitschko to become unified world champion after picking up every domestic and European belt along the way.
Unfortunately, depression and drug use forced him out of action for three years after the Klitschko win as he ballooned in weight and struggled to stay motivated. But he returned in 2018 and became world champion again by defeating Wilder in 2020 and 2021, with an undisputed fight now on the horizon against Oleksandr Usyk.
