I'm curious. Do the English get behind him as they do for an ethnically English fighter or it's not the same because he's Irish? Correct me if I'm wrong, but he's fully Irish as far as genetics, no?
He was born and raised in England, but is of Irish traveller descent.. His Dad sounds fully English too. I'm assuming his ancestry is far back, because after The GB team picked David Price ahead of him for the Olympic Qualifiers, Fury tried to join the Ireland team but he could not prove he was eligible. Don't think anyone here is bothered of his Irish roots, he's very popular at the moment but some dislike him cause they hate travellers/gypsies.A lot of people here have some part Irish in them. Even Joshua and Whyte are 1/4 Irish!
Viewed as English by the English more so than Lewis who got unfair stick for living in Canda for his teens and representing them in Olympics despite being born in England. Travellers aren't disliked in England as some would portray either (at least not where I'm from).
Nobody in England cares about that sort of thing. If they did, they wouldn't be able to get behind anyone form Liverpool or Manchester as a huge proportion will have Irish blood.
I am a fan because of what he has done in and out of the ring since he hit rock bottom with suicidal thoughts and gross obesity. Don't really care about anything else whether nationality or being a traveller. The greatest comeback ever and people will be talking about the legend of The Gypsy King forever.
Where are you from out of interest? I don't see race or heritage playing much of a part in boxer's popularity in the UK. Thankfully we seem quite progressive in that sense.
There’s definitely negative perceptions around travellers, not sure how you can say that really. Where are you from if you don’t mind me asking?
I've noticed Americans hang on to old country ties in a really superficial way we really don't here. They'll say I'm Irish, German, Dutch, English etc without ever going there or meeting distant family from there!
Originally from Mitcham, it has big taveller community for many decades. A lot of my friends and people I know had parents or grand parents and other realatives that had lived on the local sites. Pretty diversed town, has a large eastern Europe and Muslim immigrant constituency for decades now. Maybe had a negative perception from people living in wealthier local areas to Mitcham such as Wimbledon but i found that to be against people living in Mitcham in general rather than specifically against Traveller community.
I think Fury is very popular in the UK (certainly more than Lewis was) and the Gypsy King tag certainly hasn’t hurt this in the slightest. He’s literally worked PR wonders considering his well documented homophobic and sexist outbursts in the past plus a PED conviction. That’s not me having a dig, it’s a genuine 360 degree PR miracle.
The reason Lewis was disliked was because of his personality, nothing to do with where he was from. Nobody could relate to him and he was an introverted weirdo. Tyson Fury on the other hand can relate to almost every one of us in some way or another.
