Tyson Fury's shock boxing retirement announcement surprised his own coach

Yesterday at 05:47 PM

Tyson Fury shocked pretty much everybody with his retirement announcement this week, including his own family members and coaches.

Andy Lee, the legendary former middleweight champion, has been involved in many of Fury’s corners in recent years. The pair are cousins and have a close friendship – but that wasn’t enough for him to get the heads up on a potentially historic retirement.

As recently as after his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk last month, Fury had spoken to Lee without any mention of hanging up his gloves. He appears to have finished with the sport, although many fans reckon it is another publicity stunt given his many previous ‘retirements’.

• Who is Mike Tyson?All you need to know about the boxing legend after match with Jake Paul

Tyson Fury retired from boxing earlier this week in bizarre social media video

On Monday afternoon, two-time heavyweight champion Tyson Fury took to social media and confirmed that he will be quitting boxing after a 16-year professional career. Throughout his iconic career he has won every pro belt including all of the world titles, although never at the same time for undisputed.

“Hi everybody, I’m going to make this short and sweet,” he said in a video posted across his social media channels that has instantly gone viral. “I’d like to announce my retirement from boxing, it’s been a blast, I’ve loved every single minute of it.

He then added an extra piece of strangeness to the video, adding: “I’m going to end with this; Dick Turpin wore a mask. God bless everybody, see you on the other side. Get up!”

The phrase ‘at least Dick Turpin wore a mask’ harkens back to 18th century highwayman and burglar Dick Turpin. It is generally used when describing someone robbing you, and has been replaced in colloquialism with more crude terms in recent years.

Andy Lee claims he had no clue about Tyson Fury’s retirement

It appears that Fury’s announcement was made without telling any of the main players in his career. Promoter Frank Warren was blindsided, and it now appears that his coach and cousin Andy Lee was also left in the dark.

“No, I talked to him since the fight, but not with those in that context,” Lee told Bloody Elbow in an exclusive interview at the press conference for Paddy Donovan vs Lewis Crocker. “I was just as surprised as anybody else.

“I don’t know anything. I can’t really speak for him because nobody knows the mind of that man, he’s his own man. He’s a unique character and he’s done everything he can in boxing, I think. If he fights Joshua, it’d be a nice swan song for both of them.

“They don’t need the money either of them, I don’t know if they need that to scratch that itch. I don’t think they really do – I think if they fought each other, I think it’d be more for to satisfy other people’s curiosity than their own.

“Well, if he wants to fight again, he does.If he doesn’t, whatever it is, we’re still friends. We’ll talk all the time. That’s it.”