By Joe Met: It has been reported today that John Fury, the father of British heavyweight contender Tyson Fury, has been jailed for 11 years after being found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Former bare-knuckle fighter and professional boxer, John Fury, became involved in a fight with an old acquaintance at a car auction in July last year. The two had been old friends who had fallen out 12 years ago, and after an argument broke out they exchanged blows and 44yr old Oathie Sykes ended up blind in one eye.
Both men are from the Irish traveler community and had known each other well, but had apparently fallen out during a trip to Cyprus in the late 90’s after an argument over a bottle of beer.
Giving evidence at Manchester crown court, Sykes claimed that Fury had started the fight and approached him claiming to be the toughest man in the country and offering the opportunity to finish what had started between the two men 12 years previously. Sykes then told the court that Fury had got him into a headlock after the two had traded blows and started to shove his finger into his eye.
In an article at Livefight.com, Sykes said “It was like he was trying to pull his finger into my brains through my socket. I was screaming, ‘Please stop, you’re hurting me.'”
“After that he tried to take my other eye – he tried to blind me, sir, not once he tried to blind me, twice.”
Fury claims that Sykes came by his injury after trying to bite him on the cheek and that the loss of his eye had been accidental. He begged the court for mercy saying: “If I could give my own eye to him to get back to my children I would do – I’m begging you for my life.”
Fury also added before being sentenced: “I’m worried about my son, his boxing career is on the line.”
Tyson Fury has over the past few months been spending more and more time training with Emmanuel Steward, even sparring with Wladimir Klitschko, so how much this will impact on his boxing career I don’t know. If he is serious about challenging for world titles, then I would say that he is training with the ideal person in Steward, and he needs to put this behind him quickly and not let it effect him too much mentally. Although if reports in the press recently about Tyson going after Audley Harrison are true, you would have to wonder if he really is serious about the sport at all, beating up Harrison isn’t going to win him many plaudits.
Comments are closed.