Tough-talking Tyson to meet the Peterborough public

Former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is the speaker at Kevin Sanders’ next promotion at Peterborough Rugby Club on Sunday March 11.

It’s a lunchtime event starting at 1pm and tickets are already selling fast.

“Love him or loathe him, Tyson Fury is an entertainer. He tells it how it is and is one of the best talkers on the after-dinner circuit,” said Sanders.

“He has some fascinating tales to tell, he’s controversial and it promises to be a fantastic event.”

Tickets are available from Sanders on 07872 601467.

Fury hit the headlines back in 2015 when he shocked the boxing world by beating Wladimir Klitschko to become the world heavyweight champion.

The following year though he had his licence suspended for positive testing of a banned steroid.

Last week Fury received clearance from the British Boxing Board of Control to resume fighting providing he passes a medical.

The decision edges Fury close to a mouthwatering domestic showdown with reigning IBF and WBA world champion Anthony Joshua.

Joshua is open to a fight between the British rivals - both of whom have defeated Klitschko - later this year but has demanded he first prove himself in a comeback fight.

Fury, aged 28, has won all 25 of his professional fights in a record that includes 18 knockouts.

Fury, who is from Irish traveller heritage, has courted controversy throughout his career.

In 2013, he told an interviewer before his first fight at Madison Square Garden that he would “hang” his own sister if she was promiscuous.

That same year he was fined £3,000 for calling fellow boxers David Price and Tony Bellew “gay lovers”.

Shortly before winning the world title in November 2015, Fury publicly argued that performance-enhancing drugs (which he denied taking) should be permitted in boxing and other sports.

His nomination for the Sports Personality of the Year award in 2015 sparked outrage after he was accused of being “sexist and homophobic”.

Fury also stated that Olympic and world champion heptathlete, Jessica Ennis-Hill, a fellow contender for the BBC award, “slaps up good” and that she “looks quite fit in a dress.”

That ignited more controversy.

A good side to Fury, however, was illustrated last weekend when he spoke at a dinner in Bristol and sat and chatted for 20 minutes with a seven year-old boy who had autism.

Fury ended that event by singing a Neil Diamond song on stage.