You might expect the new heavyweight champion of the world to splash out on a luxury car or expensive jewellery. Not Tyson Fury. He earned millions of pounds for his night?s work against Wladimir Klitschko but his treat to himself is a vintage second-hand caravan which cost him about ?4,000.
The 6ft 9in traveller intends to restore the 1958 Westmorland Star caravan to its former glory and live in it in the garden behind the ?500,000 house in Morecambe Fury, 27, shares with his pregnant wife Paris and their two children.
The unbeaten fighter is nothing if not unorthodox, as Klitschko found to his cost with no answer to the awkwardness of the challenger as the Ukrainian?s nine-year, six-month reign as the champion crashed in a scrappy fight in which the old man was made to look every one of his 39 years.
There is no such thing as certainty in boxing, but the young fighter bamboozled and bewildered Klitschko, who simply did not know what to do against the taller man.
Showing disdain, Fury used rangy control, head movement, footwork, speed and huge self-belief to refuse Klitschko a foothold in the fight. From round two onwards, it was written on Klitschko?s face and in his body language.
There was no Plan B from the champion; even a Plan A was barely detectable. Fury had told everyone it would be his ?easiest fight? in the build-up. Few believed him. But he was proved completely right.
?The first thing I did when I woke up on Sunday morning was to say out loud ?I?m the new heavyweight champion of the world?, and it had a nice ring to it,? declared Fury, the eighth British heavyweight in history to win the world crown. Britain?s tally of world champions in all weight divisions also rose to 11. ?I went online and got the picture off Boxrec.com and it said: ?Won, unanimous decision, Wladimir Klitschko.? I?d been waiting to see that picture for a long, long time.
?But to be honest, I don?t feel any different this morning than I did the day before that or two weeks ago. I always said that winning the heavyweight championship of the world wouldn?t change me, that earning some money or being in the limelight wouldn?t change me. It won?t.
?Not too many people thought I could do it, but I had faith all along that I?d be the champion of the world and make it an easy fight. And it was an easy fight against one of the great champions with 23 world title defences.
?People said nobody could breach his defences but a bit of brains is all it took. I?m feeling good, apart from my feet, they?re absolutely killing me. For some reason my feet were more affected than any other part of my body.?
Fury?s toes were blistered badly. ?I need to invest in a better pair of socks than this pair of 50-for-a-pound,? he joked, referencing the excess of foam Klitschko had wanted under the canvas.
Once the hullabaloo has died down, and comparisons with the likes of Muhammad Ali beating Sonny Liston, Leon Spinks defeating Ali, Buster Douglas dethroning Mike Tyson and Michael Moorer pulling off the unthinkable against Evander Holyfield stop, Fury will look to his next move, having stretched his unbeaten streak to 25 with this convincing unanimous points victory in which the judges are to be applauded for getting the decision right in a handover of four belts.
Klitschko, for his part, insisted he would execute the rematch clause, but it would not be a major surprise if the old champion has a change of heart. ?I was lacking speed and he was quick,? Klitschko said. ?I just could not find the right distance. His reach bothered me. I tried it, but it just did not happen.?
