Fury has had many similarities to Ali so far in his career. He, like Ali, is from a somewhat segregated community within his country and is outspoken about this. Fury has a high ring iq, is brash and both hated & loved within the mainstream, just like young Cassius Clay was early in his career. On his run to the title, Ali was dropped by the smaller man in Henry Cooper, much like Cunningham (the smaller man) dropped Fury with a single shot. Upon challenging for the crown, both fighters talked a big game and used their smarts to get inside their opponents heads. They were also huge underdogs going in against established champions. Although Ali had a number of defences, he was essentially in exile from boxing for a several years during his prime. Fury finds himself in his own kind of exile, by the time he fights he'll have been out of the ring for over 18 months. There's also a relatively high possibility Fury fights Joshua in the next year, which again, would parallel Ali in fighting Frazier. Only time will tell if this eerie repeat of history continues.
Both are also vocal about their religious beliefs, at times controversially so. Both also very charismatic, but as you mention, not received well by all.
I made a similar thread about a month before the Fury Wlad fight. Other similarities: Both rely on great size(for their era) combined with movement, while having average power. Both had questions about their chin early in their career, but beat a respected champ who had massive power. Both generally underperformed against fringe contenders(banks, cooper, jones vs Cunningham, Chisora I and Pajkic) before their title shot Since then, as you've said, the similarity has increased with Fury exile (although, unlike Ali, for less noble reasons). It would be great if AJ went on to establish himself as the man in the division, only for Fury to come back in a couple years and beat him too. That would make it very Aliesque
No, not if AJ became the dominant hw(=Foreman). The closest approximation would be Fury loses to, say, Wilder or Parker (=Frazier), then wins in a rematch. Then Wilder or Parker get blown out by AJ, then Fury beats AJ. But it can't happen exactly the same. It would be close enough if he just came back and beat AJ
Muhammad Ali made nine successful world heavyweight title defenses after beating Liston .... Tyson Fury made none. Muhammad Ali had his passport revoked, had his boxing license revoked, was sentenced to five years in prison and had to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to stay out of prison. Fury went on a drinking, drugging and eating binge for almost two years and gave up all his titles voluntarily. Fury has more in common with Jess Willard than Ali. Tyson Fury has close to nothing in common with Ali ... at all. How many heavyweight champions since John L. Sullivan came from a segregated community that was looked down on ... but were so confident in themselves they talked smack to their opponents? Like 99.9 percent of the heavyweight champs? Takes more than that.
Ali was dropped much harder by the smaller Cooper than Fury vs Cunningham. Nobody hit Ali that hard on the chin in his whole career.
Fury for one doesn't have Ali mental toughness. He took a little sting from the media and immediately fell apart turning to junk food and drugs for comfort. He has far more in common with washouts like Leon Spinks and Buster Douglas than Ali.