Tyson Fury took on American heavyweight Chris Lovejoy who called him a tramp and claimed he would knock him out, then they fought together

Tyson Fury once sought to put American heavyweight Chris Lovejoy in his place after hearing about his trashy talk in Las Vegas gyms.

In 2019, The Gypsy King signed a promotion and broadcast deal in the United States with Top Rank and ESPN, then held two demo fights in America that year.

Arriving in Las Vegas to train for the first against Tom Schwarz, Fury caught wind of an undefeated heavyweight who had always insisted he knock him out if given the chance.

Lovejoy was 18-0 after boxing all of his fights at small shows in Mexico against journeyman opposition – the vast majority of whom had big losing records.

Inexplicably, this earned him a top 15 ranking with the WBA and seemingly made him believe he could actually compete at the world level.

He called Fury for a long time, but was pretty quiet when he met him in person.

In the video, Fury walks up to Lovejoy and shakes his hand.

He is then heard saying in an American accent, “I heard you were telling people you thought you could kick my ass.”

Lovejoy laughs and responds, but her words are drowned out by the music playing in the Top Rank gym.

Fury responds by adding, “Yeah? Come down tomorrow and we’ll find out.

“I got that right hand for you baby, boom.”

“One shot. If I don’t get you down first, it doesn’t count.

Fury then stepped into the ring and shouted, “It’s Lovejoy, but they call me pooper.”

In a 2019 interview, Fury explained his version of what happened.

“What happened was there was this big guy, six-foot-five, 20 stone, 18-0 (18 KOs), he was highly rated by the WBA,” Fury told iFLTV.

“And he was saying all over Las Vegas, in all the heavyweight gyms, ‘I’m going to knock out Tyson Fury. He’s a bum, he’s this, he’s that.

“So one of the trainers at the gym said, ‘Oh Tyson, there’s this guy who said he was going to knock you out.

“I said, ‘You’re going to knock me out, aren’t you?’

“He said, ‘Yes, I am.’

“I said, ‘Come down and do it then.

“So anyway I wasn’t [sparring] at the gym and he showed up at the gym. I said, ‘I’ll tell you what to do, come back tomorrow and I’ll knock you out. If I don’t, it doesn’t count.

“He kind of beat it, didn’t know how to take it. But he left and he came back tomorrow.

“My cousin said, ‘I want you to drop him with a straight left hand in the first round.

“I said, ‘You have it.

“He comes running towards me, I just went sliding, boom and he fell. All 20 stones from him on the ground.

In a previous interview, Lovejoy gave her version of events and told a very similar story, but differed massively when it came to the workout itself.

He simply told iFL TV: “We did our job, shook hands and talked. That’s it.

“It was cool, he has a lot of stamina, he was exactly what I thought he would be.”

Eventually, in 2021, Lovejoy found himself in a real fight at heavyweight as he took on former world title challenger Manuel Charr.

Charr was 36 at the time, by still KOd Lovejoy with easy in the second round.