Back in 2000, eight years before Tyson Fury set out on the road to world boxing domination, Brad Pitt starred as Irish traveller Mickey 'One Punch' O'Neill in the Guy Ritchie movie, Snatch.
The crime thriller featured Pitt as a boxer that main characters Turkish and Tommy, played by Jason Statham and Stephen Graham, pinned so much of their hopes on. Years later, Tyson 'Gypsy King' Fury came from his Travellers upbringing to steam towards multiple heavyweight world titles.
During an interview about Operation Fortune with our very own Rory Cashin, Guy Ritchie spoke about how Brad Pitt prepared for the role as Mickey O'Neill and touched on the great success enjoyed by Tyson Fury over the past 15 years.
"By the way," Ritchie remarked, "that character of Brad's turned out to be quite prophetic, really, didn't it?
"That was weird. I remember when Tyson Fury first started coming on the scene and I thought, 'This can't be something, can it?' And how about that?
"By the way, it was great. I'd been following the travelling community's tradition in boxing for quite some time, and I'm very interested in, and that culture. It was very interesting to see that become manifest in that rather spectacular fashion. I'm a big fan of Mr Fury and I'm so glad that he has become what he has become."
A few years back, Brad Pitt himself told JOE that at least part of his boxer character was based around Fr. Ted. "I was going off a performance of a guest star on a Father Ted episode," he said.
