With a name like ‘Tyson Fury’, you may be excused for thinking that this boxer is actually a character from a video game. Add to this that he is six foot nine inches tall, and born to an Irish family of travelling bare knuckle fighters, you will see many people doing a double take when they see his stats.

Tyson was named after the legendary Mike Tyson by his father ‘Gypsy’ John Fury. When Tyson was born seven weeks prematurely, he was said to weigh only one pound, and would fit in the palm of his fathers hand. During this time, the doctors told his family that he would not live long, and apparently died three times before finally pulling through.

Tyson had a good amateur career and there is some dispute as to why he didn’t compete in the olympics. However, ever since turning professional (he was called up to fight on the undercard of the Froch vs Pascal fight during his honeymoon) he has been quite vocal about wanting to fight Olympic heavy weight star David Price. There seems to be some kind of rivalry between the two fighters, perhaps from their amateur days, but David Price is content to continue picking his own fights having only recently had his own pro debut.

Tysons most recent victory was against another monster of a fighter, six foot seven inch Scott Belshaw. Afte Tyson had made his first five fights look easy (all KO / TKO wins), the giant match up between the 2 fighters seemed an exciting prospect, and many believed that Belshaw would provide a very real challenge for Tyson. However, when the pair stepped into the ring it was immediately obvious that Belshaw wasn’t in the same class. He was punished repeatedly with a spear like jab from Tyson, and showed little head movement to avoid the blows. This is possibly due to not normally needing to move that much from fighting much smaller opponents. Tyson followed up with combinations, and knocked Belshaw down 3 times before referee Richie Davies stopped the fight in round 2 after more punishing body shots.

From this form, it’s very easy to get carried away and rush Tyson through to a title shot. However, he has been relatively untested and not been taken further than the fourth round. He defintely needs a step up in quality, although a lot of domestic heavy weight fighters are understandably dodging him at the moment which makes it difficult for him to get decent opponents.

Tyson’s next fight is at the Robin Park Arena in Leigh on the 13th June.