Gypsy King: The Tyson Fury Biography

by Nigel Cawthorne

Heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury was named after Mike Tyson, the world heavyweight champion when Fury was born in 1988. His surname Fury is also the perfect name for a fighter who also calls himself The Furious One and the Gypsy King due to his Traveller origins. His family has a long history in bare-knuckle fighting and both his father Gypsy John Fury and grandfather Tiger Gorman also fought as professionals. After turning professional in 2008, Tyson Fury became famous for his aggression both in the ring and in the Twitter sphere. Perhaps not as poetic as Muhammad Ali, his verbal jibes at his opponents always packed a punch. He is also a great showman, turning up to one press conference dressed as Batman. He loves to sing and courts notoriety with his outspoken views on homosexuality and other sensitive issues. These probably cost him the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2015. In the ring, though, he is unchallenged. In twenty-eight professional fights, he has won twenty-seven with just one controversial draw. At regional level he held the British and English heavyweight titles twice each, as well as the European, Commonwealth and Irish heavyweight titles. He held the ABA super-heavyweight title before turning professional.

Genres: Biography

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 22, 2019

About the author

Nigel Cawthorne is an Anglo-American writer of fiction and non-fiction, and an editor. He has written more than 80 books on a wide range of subjects and has contributed to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph Daily Mail and The New York Times. He has appeared on television and BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Many of Nigel Cawthorne's books are compilations of popular history, without footnotes, references or bibliographies. His own web site refers to a description of his home as a "book-writing factory" and says, "More than half my books were commissioned by publishers and packagers for a flat fee or for a for a reduced royalty".

One of his most notable works was Taking Back My Name, an autobiography of Ike Turner, with whom he spent a number of weeks working with him on, taking up residence in Turner's house. The book caused much controversy, resulting in court cases for three years following its release.

Cawthorne currently lives in Bloomsbury, London with his girlfriend and son, Colin (born 1982).

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is terrible, it’s basically a padded out Wikipedia entry full of endless quotes from pre-bout press conferences. There is little insight into Fury as a person and worst of all the book is full of editing errors and spelling mistakes. It’s no surprise the publisher went out of business if this is the kind of thing they thought was worth printing.

[Jo Joy Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needed a history lesson as lost track what with ridiculous pay-per-view.

Remember some of his fights on Channel 5 and ITV.

Might not have seen the Wilder. Will look it up.

Boxing and it's entourage has always been fascinating, brutal and bonkers.

The writing in this book has a lot to be desired. Boxer's names mis-spelt, sentences and paragraphs repeated, completely illegible words.

Someone needs to proof-read the next biography Mr Cawthorne does.

Don't think anyone should be judged or mis-judged because of where they come from. I always liked him but reading some of his antics, he's not got the best people looking out for him and advising him. What's new?!

[PolicemanPrawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is boring and not insightful at all. It merely plainly describes the events in Tyson Fury's life, with no analysis or psychological evaluation. Much of it is filled with quotes of what boxers said in interviews and press conferences, stuff like "I'm going to knock you out". Imagine page after page of this and you have this book.

[Mark Maddock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of this in the public domain but some interesting stuff and an easy read.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a big fan couldn’t put this down

[Sakeeza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a very good book with a lot of detail and i enjoyed it.

[Justice4Gaza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tyson Fury is a magnificent boxer, fighting with both incisive intelligence and awesome physicality. And, as you will read in this biography, he has successfully fought outside the ring, also, against the demons of his personal life, to stand where he is today. I am happy to hail him as the One and Only Gypsy King of Boxing.

But for me and countless other committed counter-culturalists, there has been, is, and will only ever be one true Gypsy King. He is, of course, Django Reinhardt.