Tyson Fury has broken his silence on the breakdown of his relationship with father John as he prepares to return to boxing.
In an interview last month, John revealed the pair’s relationship was ‘destroyed completely’ after Tyson announced he would make his latest comeback with a heavyweight bout against Arslanbek Makhmudov on April 11.
It will be Fury’s first fight since December 2024, when he was beaten for a second time by Oleksandr Usyk.
And as he goes through his fight-week preparations, the Gypsy King revealed his father has wanted him to retire from boxing ever since the second part of his trilogy of fights against Deontay Wilder.
‘He’s not happy. He wanted me to retire in 2020 after I beat Deontay Wilder,’ he told Good Morning Britain on Wednesday.
‘He’s just not happy, he does not want me to box. I suppose any parent wouldn’t want their kid to continue to do something they’ve done from being a little kid all the way to being an adult at the end of their sporting age.
‘I think he’s concerned. When it’s your kids, when it’s your close relatives or whatever, I think you feel very concerned for the individual.
‘He’s got his opinions and he doesn’t want me to do it – he never has wanted me to do it for the past six years.
‘At the end of the day, every man must bear his own cross and it’s my destiny to do.’
Asked if there is any chance of his father attending this weekend’s bout at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the 37-year-old said he didn’t have much hope.
‘He might do, he might do, he might do. But he didn’t come to the Usyk II fight so I’m not holding my breath,’ he continued.
‘My dad will do what my dad will do, he’s his own man and there’s nothing I can do about it. If he turns up, great and if he doesn’t, also great.’
Fury’s younger brother Tommy echoed John’s sentiments in an interview with Bloody Elbow this week, revealing that nobody in the boxing clan wants the Gypsy King to fight again.
‘I think if you asked any one of his family do we want to see him keeping boxing the answer would have been an all around “no”. That’s all the way around the board because we care about his health.
‘Obviously you guys are fight fans, you love to see him in the ring because he brings that entertainment. But we think of his health and everything like that. So listen, he’s decided to keep fighting, it’s Tyson who is a fighting man who loves to do so. But I guess time will tell and I think he definitely still has it in him because he wouldn’t be getting in that ring if he knew he didn’t.’
Speaking to Daily Mail Sport last month, courtesy of Playbook Boxing, Fury Sr was emotional when describing the separation with his son.
‘My relationship with Tyson is destroyed. Boxing destroyed it completely. I’ll say it on camera: I’ve never taken £10 off him in my life and I never will.
‘I don’t want Tyson’s money and I don’t need Tyson’s money. Whatever he’s got, good luck to him. But, don’t forget who built his story when he was a kid. He didn’t build it himself, did he? Me, his father.
‘I was 30 seconds away from asking for a break there. I haven’t really expressed these emotions before but they’re strong and they’re there.
‘I think he’s past his best. I’m a no-filter kind of guy – I say it how I see it. I love him, but there are too many people patting him on the back and telling him things that aren’t true, building him up like he’s invincible. He’s not and he hasn’t been for a while.
‘Tyson has been gone since the Deontay Wilder fights, they finished him. Wilder completely done him. He’s not got a leg underneath him. He’s took a lot away from Tyson. Makhmudov is a problem for Tyson. I am the first one to say it.
‘Listen, I understand now that Tyson is testing himself. But, I can tell you now, his legs aren’t there anymore. I understand the only way he will believe that and see that is when the first bell rings.
‘Tyson was a formidable man, but when you fight one of the hardest punchers in boxing history three times, it takes something out of you that you never get back. You can’t refill that tank to what it once was. And every shot he took matters.
‘Don’t forget, in the last fight he went down four times – huge, heavy punches. He fought his heart out, went to the absolute limit, and gave everything he had to get that knockout. But when he got it, he had nothing left afterwards.
‘He laid it all on the line. He even said himself – after everything – that he was prepared to die in there if it came to it. That’s the kind of mentality he had: willing to risk everything in the ring.’
