Martin Rogan predicted Tyson Fury’s future after sparring 17-year-old Gypsie King

Mystic Mart, Martin Rogan knew Tyson Fury had a bright future ahead of him when he sparred with the Bolton based heavyweight in his teens.

The Belfast heavyweight star said he knew Fury would once rule the heavyweight division after a spar they had nearly 20 years ago.

Speaking on Tommy McCarthy and Tyrone Mckenna’s  Whiskey ‘n White podcast the former Commonwealth Champion revealed he shared the training ring with the former WBC heavyweight champion of the world when Fury was a teen looking to find passage onto the Irish team.

The popular inaugural Prizefighter winner says he knew from what was just a move-around that Fury had enough about him to go far in the sport.

“The strange thing is when he was 17, Nugget (Gerry Nugent) gave me a call and asked if I would come over and spar this kid from England, who’s trying to get on the Irish team.

“I went down and he says ‘Take him around, do three or four rounds with him, and just go easy on him’.

“I got in and sparred him and got a couple of good shots in and was working his body, and then after I was sitting on the boxing apron and asked him his name.

He says ‘It’s Tyson Fury’ and I said ‘That’s a great name. Is that your real name?’. He was ‘Oh aye, aye, my real name is Tyson Fury’.

“I said to him ‘If you keep boxing like that and keep going like that, you’re only 17, there’s no doubt you’ll be a world heavyweight champion’.

“And today, there he is, or he was, heavyweight champion of the world.”

‘Big Roggie’ sparred Fury numerous times more over the years and eventually ended up sharing the ring with him in 2012. The pair contested the last ever heavyweight rish title fight, which was won by Fury courtesy of a fifth-round stoppage.