Tyson Fury - From 400lbs to Knockout Victory | My First Million Podcast

So, uh, did you watch the Tyson Fury fight?

I did.

I'm a—

I'm not a huge boxing fan, but I'm a fan of greatness and I like combat sports in general.

There we go. I, I was lucky enough. I actually watched it with Sam and Sam is, you know, a big boxing fan. And I think I know a lot of Patriots fans will say the 28-3 is the greatest comeback story in sports. I think Tyson Fury is the greatest comeback.

So explain the Tyson Fury story.

So just so we can— I'm going to start at the end.

Okay.

Tyson Fury knocked out Deontay Wilder in the 7th round. Deontay Wilder is known as the baddest man on the planet, right?

Never, never been defeated.

And he's— he has a 96% knockout rate, right?

42 fights, 41 knockouts, something crazy like that.

Only person he hasn't knocked out was his last Tyson Fury fight. So Tyson Fury started off— he's this English boxer also known as the Gypsy King. He was 8 weeks premature weighing in at 1 pound.

Right.

Okay. Almost didn't make it just from the beginning.

Right. 1 pound. 1 pound, which is crazy because if you see him now, he's 6'9", 275 pounds.

Exactly. Exactly. And that's, and that's slim for him, which we'll get into. Um, but his dad knew greatness. His dad was one of those people that understood that this guy's going to be a champion. And so we named him Tyson after the great Mike Tyson. Obviously years go by, years go by. He starts training. His dad was a boxer. His uncle's a boxer. Everyone in his family is boxers. And he gets to this point where he's like the next contender coming up. He's, uh, 23 years old. He gets invited into Vladimir Klitschko's actual, uh, fighting camp itself. And kind of going back to your guys' point last week about hearing doubters, everyone always told Tyson Fury, you're gonna go to this camp, but Vladimir Klitschko is the king, right? Even when you're there, he's gonna batter you as a sparring partner. And so he was training with him. He's like, this guy's not that great. I'm gonna get into his head. These guys, they weren't even boxing against each other at this time.

They're not opponents.

So during the training camp itself, they go into the sauna. Okay. Have you heard the sauna story?

I have not heard the story.

No, you haven't heard it.

I'm excited.

This is maybe my favorite story in sports. So, uh, everyone knows and everyone tells Tyson Fury, Vladimir Klitschko is not just the king of the ring. Vladimir Klitschko is the king of the sauna. Okay. Look, everyone here, Henry, post a photo of what Vladimir Klitschko looks like this time. He's a monster.

Yeah.

He's enormous.

He's a Russian monster.

He's a Russian monster. Ukrainian, Russian monster. So, This guy's huge. So they go into, and Tyson Fury's, everyone's telling him, you gotta get outta the sauna as fast. No one can last as long as him. And he says, I'm not even fighting this guy. I'm gonna get into his head. I wanna beat him now because I know I'm gonna be champion later. And people say I can't do something, I'm gonna do it. Okay? So they get in there, it's hot, it's really warming up. 5 minutes go by, 10 minutes go by. There's about a dozen people in there. People are dropping off, right? Someone's leaving, another person's leaving. About 20 minutes come in and it's only Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko left. So Wladimir Klitschko, you know, stands up. Tyson Fury's like, thank goodness, he's about to pass out. Wladimir Klitschko turns up the heat, sits back down. And so Tyson Fury says, I can't let this guy get in my head. Everyone thinks I can't beat him. I'm gonna get up too. He gets up. You know what he does?

Turns it up.

Grabs a newspaper. He lays down and he grabs a newspaper, right? Another 25 minutes go by. They're in legitimately as hot as the sauna can go. And Klitschko finally leaves. Tyson Fury wins. He's like, I can't just leave right now. He'll know that I was just trying to beat him. Waits a little bit longer, basically passes out. Years go by, 3, 4 years go by. Tyson Fury's the number one contender.

Klitschko's the champion.

Klitschko's the champion. He hasn't lost in something like 11 years. 11 years hasn't lost, right? Everyone's like, Tyson Fury, you cannot beat Klitschko. Tyson Fury goes, you know what? I know all of you think I can't do this. I'm going to do it on his home court. I don't come to the UK. I don't wanna fight you at Wembley. I wanna fight you in like Eastern Europe. So they fight in Germany. And then, so in the pre-fight they do a face-to-face similar to how we are now. Tyson Fury brings up the sauna issue and Klitschko, everyone look up the clip, is so like, pretends like it didn't happen. Like he couldn't remember it. And Tyson Fury says after the fight, he knew that's when he beat him. And he goes in and he batters, right? He batters Klitschko, wins. Becomes the lineal champion, 3-class champion, whichever.

By the way, I love this lineal champion. Lineal champion, for those who don't follow boxing, is just you beat the man who beat the man who beat the man who beat the man all the way back in time to the first man.

Exactly.

And so you have taken the champion, you took the champion out.

Yes.

And nobody's taken you out yet. You are the lineal champion.

He's the lineal champ. So this is 2015. So the thing was is that after this fight, Tyson Fury didn't go on and actually, uh, fight Klitschko again, right? He balloons up to 400 pounds.

He's at the mountaintop. He's like, is this it?

Is this it? And he's hearing from everyone, he couldn't do it again. He can't do it again. And it's finally somewhat getting to him. He becomes addicted to drugs. He gets addicted to booze. He's 400 pounds. And everyone says, I knew it. I knew Tyson Fury was a bum, right? Right. And so finally something in his mind clicks. 2017, this video comes out. Him jogging. His face is monstrous, size of a mask. He's red.

He looks like someone who ate Tyson Fury.

Exactly. And he— there's this video, everyone's got to see it. And he said, he says, it's like, Deontay Wilder, I'm coming for you. And everyone says, he's never going to do it. He's failed so many times, he'll never come back.

Yeah.

And let— obviously he fights him, he comes back, he drops 150 pounds. It was a draw the first fight. Time comes back, they're like, you know what, Tyson Fury, he's not going back. He's gonna do the WWE thing. He got his payday. He's gonna go drink again. Comes back, obviously this past Saturday knocks out Deontay Wilder.

Actually knocks out the knockout artist.

100%. No one thought he could do it.

Right.

Um, and so I just thought it was this really interesting story, uh, for a lot of the points that even we were talking about last week, or you guys were talking about last week when it came down to people saying no, right? People not wanting to see success happen. Everyone wants to see you lose. And he took that as energy, came back like 4 separate times, right, from the brink, like 4 separate times, and made it happen.

I just thought it was just something I could tell you're kind of like me in that, um, maybe the thing I respect most is someone's mentality. Yes, their mental toughness. And, um, and I don't, I don't even think I'm particularly great at this, uh, but it's something that I've decided is sort of the number 1 most important asset is how, how How is your mindset? How is your mindset when things are good? Are you grateful? Are you appreciative? Are you a giver to others? How is your mindset when things are bad? Are you resilient? Do you, do you turn the disadvantages into advantages? And mindset is number one. That's why you love Fury.

Yes.

It doesn't matter that he knocked out the guy. It matters how his mind worked when he was at a point where most people break.

Angela Duckworth would call it grit, right? What this guy has, right? Like when I read that book, all I could think about was Tyson Fury. Yeah, but it all comes down to mindset. All the great leaders have it. Uh, Admiral William McRaven is another great example. Obviously one of the greatest admirals in Navy SEALs history and special ops history. Same thing. He's a great leader because of how his mindset is, right?

This is why sports is great. It's the metaphor. It's the grand metaphor for life. Uh, who cares about these guys punching each other in the head or throwing a ball in a hoop? Uh, but it is the great—

and we'll post a bunch of the things that we talked about. I want everyone to go to The Hustle and @MyFirstMillion, everyone on Twitter. And I want you to all look at these links and be inspired.

Yes, love it. Uh, and it was a great fight. It was very— and he gave us a nice little ballad. Oh my God, he sings a song when he wins, which is hilarious. And part of like his marketability is that he's just like crazy character.

He's crazy. He was dancing before the fight. Yeah, Deontay Wilder was stretching and he was literally dancing.

By the way, super lame excuse by Deontay Wilder that his costume was too heavy and that's why he lost. No, you lost because Tyson Fury punched you in the head.

Yeah.