Tyson Fury in new Twitter row after anti-Semitic outburst
Heavyweight champion in public row with fellow boxer Barry McGuigan after making anti-Semitic comments on YouTube.
Tyson Fury has become involved in a fresh row with former world champion Barry McGuigan after being criticised on Friday for making homophobic, sexist and anti-Semitic comments in a YouTube broadcast.
The 57-minute recording posted online by reigning world heavyweight champion Fury has already drawn a complaint to the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) from the Campaign Against Antisemitism.
McGuigan, a former world featherweight champion and who now works as a promoter, wrote in a column for the Daily Mirror that Fury was “like a child (who) has no filter, no off button” and described himself as “lucky” for having tried and failed to sign the 27-year-old, who faces Wladimir Klitschko on July 9 in a rematch for the WBA, IBF and WBO titles.
McGuigan added: “Kids have parents bringing them into line. No one says no to Fury. This is brazen attention-seeking, self-evidently offensive, insulting, abusive and wrong. If one of my fighters behaved like Fury he would be out the door.”
Fury tweeted in response to McGuigan’s comments: “u are a traitor to your home country, gave up your Irish title to fight for the British, & u backdoor people in biznuess,#C5”.
A number of social media users leapt to the defence of McGuigan, who is widely credited with helping to bring a degree of unity to Northern Ireland through his sporting exploits in the 1980s.
Fury’s video on Friday referred to “Zionist, Jewish people … (who) own all the banks, all the papers, all the TV stations” and posted further tweets on Friday evening regarding his views on Jewish people. One stated: “I see all the Zionist media outlets are on my back, because I speak the truth! u will all see the truth soon enuf, they killed my lord jesus.”
Fury also made personal attacks on his next opponent Klitschko in the video and also voiced his extreme views on bestiality, paedophilia and women.
His candidacy for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year was the subject of much debate last year following homophobic and sexist comments, including about heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill.
He has previously been warned about his conduct by the BBBofC.
The governing body said following its previous meeting with Fury in January that he had been warned about his “heavy responsibilities….to avoid making controversial, non-boxing comments”, but that there was no cause to “interfere with his basic human rights” – specifically those around freedom of expression.
The BBBofC had no immediate comment to make when contacted by the Press Association on Saturday morning
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