TYSON FURY’S dad John has revealed he faced terrible abuse in prison – but no-one dared “insult me to my face”.
The father-of-six has been behind bars three times, including for gouging a man’s eye out, but claims he is “everything a man should be”.
twitter @MichaelBensonnJohn Fury has spent plenty of time around ‘hard cookies’[/caption]
GettySon Tyson Fury is preparing to take on Oleksandr Usyk on February 17[/caption]
The former bare-knuckle fighter, 59, has a violent past but says his strong religious belief helped him overcome his darkest days.
As a teen, Fury Senior was twice sent to borstals – detention centres that have since been replaced by other forms of youth custody.
He escaped from the first one – a place he compares to the gruesome borstal of the 1979 movie Scum, starring Ray Winstone.
And after he was finally captured he spent three more years inside at a similar centre.
Then in 2011 Fury Senior was jailed for 11 years for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
It followed a fight at a car auction in Belle Vue, where he gouged out the eye of a man who had been his friend – until they fell out over a bottle of beer and had a long-running feud.
He was released four years into his sentence due to good behaviour, having initially been in notorious Category A prison Strangeways before moving to an open jail.
Now the dad of heavyweight legend Tyson has discussed some of his worst times inside.
He told the Daily Star, via Free Bets: “When I was in prison, at 10 o’clock at night, I used to get called every name under the sun through the windows.
“What they were calling me and my family was unprecedented.
“But did I know who was saying it? No. There’s 1,500 men in a prison where the noise comes from. You can only guess, but would they say it to my face? No.
“I’ve been round some hard cookies in my life. We thought it was tough. Nobody’s ever insulted me to my face.
AlamyJohn Fury says he is ‘respectful’ and only shows a different side to his personality if his family are threatened or he is insulted[/caption]
“They can say what they want behind my back because there’s miles and miles in front of people. When you’re stood there looking like you’re gonna do somebody some damage, let’s see where the balls are.
“I know what mine are. You’ll have to kill me to stop me, because I’ll definitely end it there. I don’t want the police knocking on my door anyway. They have knocked on my door too many times.”
But Fury Senior insists his unpleasant side only comes out if he believes he has been insulted or his family need protecting.
He said: “The people in the know who know me, they know I’m not to be messed about with.
“I’m respectful. I’m everything a man should be. But I’m not a fool.
“Fools don’t rear families and direct their kids to stardom and fame and wealth or keep them there.”