More than three years after his previous UK bout, Tyson Fury was a popular winner in what he claimed will be his final fightMoments after a discombobulating right uppercut sent Dillian Whyte deep into la-la land, Tyson Fury asked Wembley to proclaim his greatness in what he claimed might be the final fight of his career.“Dillian is a warrior,” said Fury. “And I believe that Dillian will be a world champion. But tonight, he met a great in the sport. I’m one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.” Continue reading...
From bad blood in Cardiff to Tyson Fury’s closest call, via a Stormzy ring walk, half a dozen British feuds settled in the ringThis was the first time two British boxers contested a version of the world heavyweight title, but the buildup turned ugly with a two-word insult: “Uncle Tom”. Lennox Lewis denied using the slur but Frank Bruno insisted it came from inside Lewis’s camp and it increased the bad blood between the aloof WBC champion and national treasure Big Frank. Continue reading...
The Wembley showdown is only a sideshow with attention focused on US law enforcement’s pursuit of the Kinahan cartelThe long buildup to next Saturday night’s world heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte, in front of a record crowd of 94,000 at Wembley Stadium, was strangely muted and even uncertain for months. An all-British showdown between the outspoken Fury and Whyte, who is such a raw and jolting talker, should have conjured up an entertaining prelude. Instead, the silence was broken only by complaints from the Fury camp about Whyte’s elusive absence from all promotional duties and rumours of constant bickering between the rival camps.Then, last Wednesday, there was a dramatic and explosive twist when the US Treasury...
The US government’s statement on Tyson Fury’s adviser should mean the sport finally listens to concernsWhen the US government document landed, in the early hours of Tuesday morning Dubai time, it must have felt like a haymaker exploding on Daniel Kinahan’s chin.Across 1,400 taut words it revealed all the addresses, the numbers of fake passports IDs, and the alleged crimes and misdemeanours of one of the most powerful men in boxing. Continue reading...
Governing bodies are using weasel words, instead of the plain ones needed: invasion, war, murderEarly last Thursday, overcome by the desire to do something, anything, however petty, to try to fight off that sense of desperate futility, I started sending out emails to the sports federations who had events scheduled in Russia this year asking if they were going to cancel them. There were already reports that Uefa was talking about moving the Champions League final, later that day the FIA announced it was cancelling the Russian GP, and Rugby Europe that it was calling off Russia’s upcoming match against Georgia. A lot of the Olympic sports, though, were moving a little more slowly.Fina, which was due to hold two...