Tyson Fury, right now, is kicked back in leather lounge and looking down at a pair of white, Nike fight boots on the feet of good mate Joseph Parker as he skips.

“Boxed in them same ones myself, Joe,” Fury grins.

“But you wore all red,” Parker replies, still moving as he talks.

“Yeah,” Fury adds, “I do like them f***ing boots”.

Just as the champ likes the gloves that, a short time later, will be placed onto his close mate’s oversized fists.

“Although nothing like the ones I wear myself,” Fury will say, nodding towards the pair of old school, brown Paffens.

But still, know they belong to the heavyweight champ.

As will so much of this night.

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The boots, the gloves, the chants, the hugs, the shouts, the selfies, signatures, the applause … all of it tied, one way or another, to The Gypsy King.

Better, the big fella devours so much of it whole.

But in this particular moment?

Well, with no more than two minutes until Parker walks from this dressingroom for a fight Fury has flown over 20 hours to attend – a fight that will last just 86 seconds – the biggest name in world boxing joins his mate, his brother, in prayer.

With the pair moving quickly to the centre of a large room deep within the bowels of Margaret Court Arena, then embracing with other members of Team Parker for a chat to the big fella upstairs.

Then the big fella down here?

Well, he falls in behind his mate and follows him ringside.

Shouting as he goes.

One of who-knows-how-many big moments on a night where, truly, the Gypsy King will appear to be everywhere, in everything and with everyone.

None of which he is being paid to do.

Which is no small thing considering when gloving up himself for a night’s work, the WBC heavyweight champ usually commands around US$30 million.

Still, on this particular night there will not be a hand Fury never shakes.

Nor a photo he knocks back.

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Same as when Parker last fought in the UK, Fury gifted him his family home for camp.

Just as this time around he has also lent Parker his gym, strength coach, even nutritionist George Lockhart.

A fella who, just quietly, has also had success not only with Fury but another fighter you might know — Conor McGregor.

Truly, in Lockhart, you have a gift Parker believes has truly changed everything.

A truth proved by the fact that on this particular night, the American will only look disapprovingly about the room once – when one of Parker’s team walks in with a bag of hot chips.

But we digress.

For this is about Fury.

‘I THOUGHT AUSTRALIA WAS 40 DEGREES’

That fighting English megastar who, this week, has not only brought himself Down Under for the most surprising of cameos, but as many bottles of his signature energy drink, Furocity, as Team Parker can knock down.

Same deal with those gloves now tied to the New Zealander’s hands.

And the boots on his feet.

With Parker explaining a day earlier how, over the years, his mate has ensured all of his own big sponsors jump in and support the Kiwi, too.

Which goes a long way to explaining why the Gypsy King is really Down Under.

An Australian title fight?

C’mon man.

This is a champion who, apart from commanding that US$30 million per fight, is in talks for unification bouts, Middle East superfights, even a headliner with former UFC champ Francis Ngannou.

A bloke who, from what we could see up close, boasts a gold Rolex worth more than a family home in Mosman.

While his custom suit?

Well, that’s something else again.

A black, tailored number that – again, up close – reveals scores of tiny family crests, each one topped by a crown and the phrase ‘Gypsy King’.

Inside each crest too, there sits various insignias representing this hulking son of Irish traveler stock who is undefeated in every sense.

In some, a St George’s cross. Others, a clenched fist. While a few crests even boast musical notes – a nod, surely, to his famed renditions of American Pie — and those two drama masks denoting tragedy and comedy.

It’s a suit too, you just know Fury would give off his back for a mate … at least if he’d bought more than one.

“But I only bought shorts really,” he concedes to a small crew inside Parker’s dressing room shortly after arriving.

“Then this one suit and one pair of jeans.

“I thought Australia was 40 degrees.”

Which in fairness, may be the only false move he has made all week while playing things up with the Australian media, knocking down beers and making even the hardest of men line up for photographs.

‘YOU’RE IN FOR A F***ING FIGHT, DJANGO’

Arriving at Margaret Court Arena shortly after seven o’clock on fight night, Fury was already backstage and waiting to greet Parker on his own arrival – where he whipped those around him into a whooping, chanting frenzy.

“C’mon boys,” he bellowed after the first raucous round was done, “let’s go again”.

And to a man, they did.

Just as when Fury wanted a rug moved from the dressingroom floor later so Parker could warm up with trainer Andy Lee, moved it was – immediately.

Although truly, at times you had to wonder how anyone could keep up with him.

Like when AFL boys Cam Mooney and Tom Bellchambers went out to fight, and Tyson was there cheering them.

Just as not so much earlier he had been with David Nyika, the young Kiwi who shared a dressingroom with Parker, was shadowed by Tyson to the ring and then returned victorious right down to those white fight boots splattered with drops of his opponent’s blood.

Sure, Fury could have sat inside the sheds all night with a cast that included Lee, Lockhart and Parker’s closest family and friends.

But he didn’t.

Instead, and somewhat incredibly for a man of his undeniable celebrity, he spent so much of his time stood just outside in the corridor, where an endless stream of fans were able to say g’day, shake hands and take selfies with an impression that suggested they couldn’t quite believe any of it.

During hundreds of encounters too, only once did the King knock a request back – when asked by a TV producer about the possibility of an interview inside the ring.

“No f***ing chance,” Fury shot back, and with a voice suggesting on nights like these, only those risking everything deserved such a platform.

Then within a blink, he was back into it.

Chatting with fighters, coaches, promoters, even fellow headliner Faiga ‘Django’ Opelu, who entered through a VIP entrance and almost straight into Fury stood outside Parker’s dressing room.

“Ah, you’re in for a f***ing fight Django,” Fury shouted.

Right before breaking into a grin and quickly moving across the corridor to shake the Queensland scaffolder’s hand.

Stayed on in that hallway to shakes scores more, too.

Some of them, old men with neckties. Others, young men with neck tatts.

At one point, he even went back out ringside and jokingly grabbed UFC middleweight king Israel Adesanya.

Again, Captain Everywhere.

Take, say, when a towering Bellchambers beat Mooney by knockout, and watching from a dressingroom TV, Fury started clapping.

“Good right hand,” the champ said, offering up a quote his doppleganger should now go plaster across a range of t-shirts before his next fight against whichever NRL player is game enough.

Same as when Parker wanted a lift in energy backstage, the Gypsy King was again ready to assist.

“What’s that walkout song you used when I was there,” the Kiwi asked.

“When?” Fury replied.

Told it was Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas, the heavyweight king continued: “That was AC/DC, You Shook Me All Night Long”.

At which point, somebody in the Team Parker crew switched the boom box up … and Back In Black started playing.

Close enough.

Indeed, while some of the headlines surrounding Fury this week may have seemed a tad, err, fanciful, the heartbeat to what brought him to Australia this first time was incredibly real.

It was for Parker.

For his “brother”.

For a fella who, apart from having claimed a world title previously himself, has also on so many days, and with nobody watching, been there to train with Fury, cut with him, eat with him, shout encouragement from ringside, whatever, doesn’t matter, he’s in.

So, yes, Fury is incredibly generous with his mate.

But only because of everything Parker has given him.

This, more than anything else, should be the real story of Fury Down Under.

Just as it was right until the end of this event.

When with the fight over and microphone in hand, the Gypsy King demanded Parker be given the likes of Andy Ruiz, Joe Joyce, even Anthony Joshua.

Then, in one last push before disappearing, the Englishman went louder than even that suit on his back.

“F*** ‘em all,” he bellowed. “Joseph Parker is f***ing back on the map!”

Then, to finish?

“God bless everybody,” Fury said. “And goodnight.”