18 May 2024 , 19:00
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Mike Tyson's spiritual outlook on death has helped shape how his namesake Tyson Fury has handled his own devastating blows outside the ring.
Tyson Fury may be a heavyweight champion but even the strongest of people have to face personal challenges in life that will test them beyond anything the boxing ring can throw at them. The dad of seven has always been very open about his mental health battles and how he's overcome them through training but when tragedy strikes a family, it can be harder to know how to cope.
In August 2022 Tyson's cousin Rico Burton was murdered in a knife attack outside a pub in the early hours of the morning. The promising boxer was just 31 years old and Tyson found out about his death while filming his Netflix reality show At Home With The Furys. He received a call at 7am in the morning when the cameras were rolling and the devastating news about the cousin he grew up with led to a big life change for the sportsman.
Speaking on camera at the time he said: "You go out for a beer to watch the boxing and wind up dead. There's not much I can do about it, so this might be a turning point in my life for sure with that bad news. Makes you wake up and realise you've got a very short amount of time on earth."
The Fury family is ever expanding (parisfury1/Instagram)He was true to his word and shortly after that Tyson came out of his brief retirement. Within four months he had returned to the ring to fight Derek Chisora, then Francis Ngannou and on Saturday he faces an undisputed clash with Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia.
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It's not the only tragedy that the 35 year old has had to deal with in his life. His wife of 15 years, Paris has revealed the devastation that struck their family when they lost two babies.
When she was in the early stages of a pregnancy, Paris suffered a miscarriage on the morning of her husband's victory against Albanian Sefer Seferi in June 2018. The devoted wife decided to hide it from him in case it affected his mental health and made him "unstable" before the fight. They tragically lost a child to stillbirth in 2014 when Paris miscarried six months into her pregnancy.
Tyson, who has battled with bipolar disorder, ADHD, depression and addiction has explained how his outlook on death has been inspired by his namesake, fellow boxing star Mike Tyson, who once opened up on his own views on life.
In 2022, he told The Sun: "I was with Mike Tyson once and he said he was looking forward to death. He said that life had been so great that surely death would be too. And I thought he had a valid point."
He also opened up on how he dealt with the loss of their two babies. "It's very traumatic for any parent to lose a child and recovering is just a process," he said. "I look at it as the circle of life. Some people just get longer than others. Some people live to 100 and some young children are called away very young."
He revealed that routine and not dwelling on things helped him to cope, as well as looking at the positives in life. "With miscarriages, baby losses and any family tragedies, you have to let things go," he said. "I had a cousin murdered back in August, we were really close, slept in the same bed as kids and that was depressing when I realised I would never see him again. But life goes on and you have to appreciate the good times that you have had."
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