WHEN Martin Rogan sparred a teenage Tyson Fury – he knew there was a future world champion in the making.
Fury actually beat Rogan in five rounds in 2012 on his rise to the top of the heavyweight division.
But Rogan first shared the ring with the future Gypsy King years beforehand – and recognised his potential right away.
He said on the Whiskey ‘n White podcast: “The strange thing is when he was 17, Nugget (Gerry Nugent) gave me a call and asked would I 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.”
Rogan, now 49, retired in 2014 with a record of 16 wins and six losses – once holding the Commonwealth title.
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Fury, 36, meanwhile proved Rogan’s to be right after famously dethroning Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.
After a stint out the ring amid a battle with depression and substance abuse, Fury returned in 2018 and became champ again two years later.
But he lost his WBC belt in May, in what was his first defeat, to Oleksandr Usyk, 37, with a rematch set for December 21.
