"The Gypsy King" Tyson Fury is the subject of a new documentary series on Netflix
The "Gypsy King" Tyson Fury is a champion who holds titles from all of the boxing organizations, an enormous, two meter tall man of irrepressible energy who remains undefeated in the professional ring, but the new documentary series on Netflix, "At Home with the Furys", presents him in somewhat of a different light. We see him hang up his gloves to make his children sandwiches, take care of his garden, philosophize and care for his family, for whom he wants to be an exemplary parent.
Fury’s life story is more than interesting. From the very first minutes of his birth he had to prove that he is a fighter.
He was born three months premature, weighed less than half a kilogram, and the doctors estimated his chances of survival as low. Their skepticism was completely understandable, as his mother had conceived 14 times with just four of the children surviving.
As you may have correctly guessed, Fury’s father Johnny named him after the boxing great Mike Tyson, who was the world champion in 1988, when Fury was born. Given his wild character today, it may surprise some to learn that as a little boy, Fury was quiet and shy.
That changed after he started boxing. He gained self-confidence and his natural talent for boxing showed itself right away.
By the time he was 14, he was strong enough to break his father’s ribs with one blow during training. You probably know the rest of his life story after that.
Fury gradually won all of the world titles offered by professional boxing. After that, he lost his motivation, left the sport, got addicted to cocaine, gained an unbelievable amount of weight, and his predisposition for mental illness almost led him to suicide.
Nevertheless, like the mythological Phoenix, Fury then rose from the ashes to achieve the very heights of his profession once more. The plot of the nine-part series (each episode approximately 40 minutes long) brings us to 2022, when Fury has decided once again to stop boxing and to become a caring husband and father to his six children.
In those first episodes we believe this nice, tall man will succeed (and we are rooting for him). His father, Johnny, and his wife, Paris, are skeptical, though.
Paris mentions Fury’s fragile mental health quite frequently. The boxing champion suffers from bipolar disorder and depression, which often display themselves in sudden mood swings.
We witness these mood swings in the series. It is not hard to have empathy for him.
For a boxer, Fury is unbelievably charming, funny, thoughtful, we believe every word he says, and he isn’t trying to create something special for the camera. The opposite is rather the case.
I am not a Romani Studies scholar, so I am unable to assess to what degree the Irish Travellers who call themselves “Gypsies” are related to the Roma. In any event, both Fury and his father Johnny speak a great deal about being “Gypsies” and they are proud of it.
It is true that when we follow the Furys’ family celebrations, for example, their children’s baptisms, they are quite reminiscent of the celebrations held by Roma in the Czech Republic, which surprised me. I definitely recommend watching this series, your time will not be wasted.
You probably already know that Johnny and Paris were right to be skeptical about Fury, but he has recently won yet another boxing match (although he came away from it with his ears scratched up). I believe we will see much more of him and I have become a big fan.
