There was no comment from Fury on Thursday, with his handlers blocking any questions on the subject from international media on a Zoom call
Tyson Fury’s promotional team blocked all questions about his association with alleged organised crime boss Daniel Kinahan on Thursday night as the World Boxing Council champion spoke ahead of the defence of his title against fellow Briton Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium a week on Saturday.
Fury had been warned this week by police to sever all ties with Kinahan, after the United States sanctioned the Irishman and issued a $5 million (£3.8 million) reward for information leading to his arrest.
A news conference, jointly convened by UK, Irish, European Union and US authorities responsible for combating serious and organised crime, announced bounties for senior figures accused of running the Kinahan Organised Crime Group.
That followed the US Treasury having imposed sanctions on Kinahan and another six of the group’s alleged ringleaders, banning banks and other companies from doing business with them. There has been no suggestion of wrongdoing by Fury, who had publicly praised Kinahan in June 2020 for negotiating a two-fight deal to meet then fellow world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in the ring.
There was no comment from Fury on Thursday, with his handlers blocking any questions on the subject from international media on a Zoom call. Instead, Fury said that fans would be calling him “Saint Tyson” if he claimed victory over Whyte on St George’s Day at the national football stadium.
“I want to put on a special show, and the support has been overwhelming,” Fury said from his training base in Morecambe, Lancashire. Whyte’s appearance on the Zoom call was his first public sighting since the fight was announced in February. Explaining why he had taken a vow of silence in the promotion of the fight until now, Whyte said: “This is a business, it’s not the ‘Tyson Fury Show’. This show sold out because of me and Tyson Fury. He fought Wilder, and none of those fights ever sold out. We are both in the fight, so some things need to be done correctly.
“I don’t dance to no one’s tune. We can dance together, but it can’t be one-way traffic.”
He claimed that several issues had needed addressing after the fight contract had been signed by both parties. “When these guys are trying to mug me off and treat me like it’s the Tyson Fury show, they needed to get things corrected. Once things were corrected… I’m a professional and here I am. I’m in good shape, and I’m ready to go.”
Whyte added that being the underdog meant nothing to him, that he was “a survivor in life”. “I’ve been counted out my whole life, so this is nothing new to me. So some guy on the internet or some journalist talking smack about me, means nothing to me. You all know my life story. For someone like me who came from nothing, I didn’t even do sports at school, to be heavyweight champion of the world, that’s true inspiration.”