The Kooky Antics Of "The King of the Gypsies" Continue

The world of combat sports has some complex characters. While MMA has enjoyed a boom of outlandish combatants in last few years with Chael Sonnen and now Conor McGregor, boxing has lacked a real, controversial figure since Mike Tyson hung up the gloves in 2005.

However, across the Atlantic, "Iron" Mike's namesake Tyson Fury is making a bold attempt to make that mantle his own.

Of Irish traveler stock, the UK's self-styled "King of the Gypsies" has made a name for himself with his antics outside of the ring as much as his 24-0 record, complete with 18 knockouts, has inside of the ropes.

In a classic clash of heavyweight giants, 6ft 9ins Fury will be taking on Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf, Germany, for the IBF, WBO and WBA titles on October 24th.

You would be forgiven for thinking Fury would take a different approach in the build up to his most important fight to date. But, if you thought that, you don't really know Tyson Fury at all.

On Wednesday, Fury arrived to the press conference in London for this career-defining fight in a bright yellow Lamborghini dressed as Batman, before wrestling with a friend dressed as the Joker in front of the assembled media watching on in confusion.

This is before Fury introduced himself: "Guten aben alles. Ich bin Tyson Fury, der sexymeister from Great Britain!" He then announced he wants to have an in-ring duet with singer Rod Stewart, the warm-up act for the fights, once he emerges the victor against Klitschko.

Klitschko, the Ukrainian stalwart of boxing's heavyweight scene, is usually a cool customer. But, even he couldn't help but brand the brash Brit a "clown" for his antics and incessant need to trash talk, which prompted Fury to challenge his opponent to a fight right there at the hotel.

But, this isn't the first time Fury has caused a stir. In the lead up to his second fight against long-time rival Dereck Chisora, Fury continually shouted obscenities before storming out of his press conference.

This performance prompted the British Boxing Board of Control to fine the fighter £15,000 for his behavior, which then led to Fury attending his next Chisora press conference with tape over his mouth with "BBB of C??" daubed over it. Fury refused to talk in front of the patient media scrum, who had to listen to his promoter Mick Hennessey speak on behalf of the Manchester-bred boxer.

Perhaps it's best Fury doesn't get to speak for himself as both his mouth and tweets have landed him in a lot of bother. While a character such as Fury's sometimes relishes the notoriety his words garner, even he identifies that he has crossed the line of decency on a number of occasions.

The best example of this was when he sent a string of abusive and homophobic tweets towards fellow heavyweight David Price three years ago. Price is a long-time rival of Fury's ever since Price was selected ahead of the King of the Gypsies to represent the Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics. It's tension that shows little sign of relenting.

After using local derogatory slang, calling Price a "shithouse scouse prick", Fury also called out Price's fellow Liverpudlian Tony Bellew, saying on a video posted to Twitter: "David Price, I'm going to put you into intensive care. That's for sure, mate. And you know your gay lover Tony Bellew? He's got to fight me in between rounds as well. I want the two of you, you pair of tossers."

The above could be seen as the harmless badmouthing you associate with boxing. Catching some insults in the world of combat sports is almost as expected as getting a punch to the face. But, the worst was yet to come.

A mysterious tweet soon appeared on Fury's Twitter timeline saying "dont like gays shoul all b shot [sic]". This was soon deleted from his account and Fury claimed it was one of his cousins helping out in his camp who had sent the public message.

Talking to British publication The Guardian, Fury said: "I was out of order for calling people names and the outbursts I've done, and I'd like to apologize for that," he said. "But, the tweet was nothing to do with me.

"As you know, I get a lot of abuse on Twitter. While I'm abroad on training camp I train three times a day often for two hours a time and I haven't got time to respond to all the people that ask questions. So I give my phone to my cousins at the camp. They're only young lads and they give abuse back. Today I've come back and they were laughing about calling some people some names and whatever. When I found out what they had done, I was furious."

Whether or not Fury's explanation for the latter tweet was truthful or not, it was a rare moment in which Fury didn't maintain face in the media. Was it through fear of yet another punishment from the British boxing authorities? Perhaps that thought process is being overly cynical. But, at least there appears to be some semblance of regret in Fury's excuses.

One thing is true, though. Fury is a man who definitely treads the tight rope of controversy associated with outlandish boxing trash talk. Combat sports, no matter what discipline, need characters who divides opinion. Fury is the people's champ in the eyes of the travelling community of the UK, while he is looked on as a parody by the press and much of the British public.