Tyson Fury v Dillian Whyte on Sunday April 24 will be live and ad-free only on Stan Event, and can be purchased by Stan customers for $60. Ring walks for the main event are expected no earlier than 7am AEST
Heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury will defend his world title against fellow Brit Dillian Whyte in front of 94,000 at Wembley on Sunday morning AEST.
But the bout was almost overshadowed at an open workout at Wembley to promote the fight this morning, with Fury quizzed by journalists about his links to the Kinahan crime family, with the champ ducking and weaving his way through the press conference.
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One of the heads of the gang named by US authorities was Daniel Kinahan, a founder of boxing management company MTK Global. Kinahan has been pictured with Fury and the champ’s American promoter, Bob Arum, admitted over the weekend that he paid Kinahan more than $4 million for four fights featuring Fury between 2019 and 2021.
When asked about the claims, the world heavyweight champion said: “That’s Bob Arum’s personal business. He can spend it all on gummy bears if he wants to. What someone does with their money is out of my control.”
Fury’s British promoter, Frank Warren, said: “Let me make a couple of things very clear – one, Daniel Kinahan has nothing to do with this show and two, as Tyson said, he was unaware of any payments made by Top Rank to Daniel Kinahan.”
Warren continued by expressing concern for the sport with regards to the allegations but also took aim at “misinformation” being spread.
“I am concerned, but I’m also concerned about some of the misinformation that’s going around. We’re not stupid people,” he said.
“All of us understand what has happened from the US Treasury. It’s been going on now for three years and we all know what we have to do and we will not be breaking the law. We’ve never broken the law.”
When asked why the MTK logo was missing from his tracksuit for the Wembley workout, Fury said: “I have never been sponsored by MTK ever.”
However, when a reporter pointed out that the champion had worn the MTK logo before, Fury’s tone became more serious.
“That was from 2017 until 2020. Three years and that was it. Done. End of. Any more probing questions that you can think of to trip me up? Because you can’t. There is nothing that I have to hide. Is there any more?”
He was then asked about a photo taken of him and Kinahan smiling together in Dubai in February, Fury: “A picture doesn’t mean I am a criminal. There could be a criminal in this building now. It doesn’t mean I am involved in his criminal activity does it?”
Warren added: “Is it a bad image for boxing? We sold 94,000 tickets in two days.
“Are we going to do good business on pay-per-view? Yes we are. We are very conscious about what we have to do as the guardians of the sport but we are not policemen. It’s only last week that (allegations surrounding Kinahan have) come to something.”
Fury refused to answer questions about his relationship with Kinahan when the news broke about the US government’s reward last week, but he had no option but to try and put the news of his links to the criminal organisation to bed this time around.
He shook his head when a reporter intimated the news surrounding Kinahan would have posed a distraction ahead of his fight with Whyte.
“Not really, it’s got nowt (nothing) to do with me, has it? If I say there’s a war going on in Ukraine and people ask me about that, it’s got nowt to do with me. I keep my business to myself,” he said.
‘I’ve got my own troubles to look after with six kids and a wife nagging me to death for not being at home to help with the kids. I’ve got a lot more to think about than other people’s business.
‘I’ve got a man who wants to punch my face in [on Sunday] and I’ve got to deal with that. Anything else is out of my control.
“I don’t really take any notice of the media. I know what the media can do and I was the victim of a witch-hunt in 2015 and 2016.”
Whyte was absent from the open workout, making it the second no-show since the fight was announced.
Warren confirmed Whyte would attend the press conference tomorrow, with a smiling Fury adding: “I’m sure he will because if he doesn’t show up, there’ll be murders. There’ll be trouble. You’d better show your ass.”
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