The father of world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury John Fury has apologised for headbutting a member of Oleksandr Usyk’s entourage on Monday as tempers boiled over in build-up to Saturday’s undisputed title clash in Riyadh.
Security had to separate the rival camps at the hotel where Monday’s media activity was being held.
Footage posted on social media of the incident shows John Fury touching heads with one of Usyk’s group and, having been pulled away, then appearing to headbutt another of the Ukrainian’s team.
It was John Fury who appeared to come off worse though, with blood pouring down the 59-year-old's head despite attempts to stem the flow. He had to be restrained repeatedly as the rival clans chanted their fighters' names.
"Sincere apologies to everybody involved. It's just the way we are," he told Seconds Out. "Emotions and tensions are running high. He was a very disrespectful fella," said John. "If you come close in a fighting man's space, you're gonna cop for something.
"What matters to me is respect for my son and he wasn't showing any of it. He mentioned my son and that was it, so he had to have it. It doesn't bother me [bleeding], it's what we live for, we're fighting people. That's a regular occurrence to me."
Tyson Fury did not see the incident as he was in a separate part of the hotel conducting media interviews. When he saw his dad following the fracas, he asked: “How did you cut yourself like that?”
John Fury claimed to Sky Sports he reacted after hearing Usyk's camp “disrespecting my son. The best heavyweight to ever wear a pair of boxing gloves.
“Coming out with all that rubbish. He’s in my face, trying to be clever. Coming into my space, ‘Usyk, Usyk’, nobody’s bothering with them. I was only chanting my own son’s name.
“At the end of the day, I’m a warrior, that’s what we do. We’re fighting people. You come in the space, you’re going to get what’s coming.”
The member of Usyk's team has been named by several news outlets as Stanislav Stepchuk.
Stepchuk said he didn't say anything about Tyson Fury and only shouted "Usyk, Usyk" to support his team. He reiterated that he had never touched John and wouldn't because of their age difference.
"I didn't touch him. He went crazy," said Stepchuk. "Yeah [I wanted to punch him], but because of the age difference it would not be very fair. He should not look for an actual fight because he could have a heart attack and finish in the ambulance."
Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk admitted the confrontation was a bad look for the sport and said he wanted an apology from John Fury.
“I apologised because I thought initially that one of our guys hit John, but then I saw the video and saw it was vice versa,” Krassyuk said.
“So do I take my apology back because it was his misbehaviour? He has to apologise because this does not give a good impression about us to the rest of the world. It’s up to him.
“Usyk’s team and Fury’s team are fighters. It wouldn’t be good if it got out of control. Usyk would say, ‘Don’t touch my guys, they are dangerous’.”
The unbeaten rivals meet for the first time at the Kingdom Arena, with Saturday’s clash crowning the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 2000 and the first of the four-belt era.
“I can’t wait," declared Tyson Fury.
“It’s unbelievable to be out here. Everyone is on a high. Big-time boxing in Saudi Arabia is fantastic.
“I’m going to enjoy this week because it’s been many years coming. So we’ll enjoy it. I feel on top of the world and I can’t wait.”
Usyk, the former undisputed cruiserweight king, won his WBA, IBF and WBO titles by outpointing Anthony Joshua at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2021 before successfully defending them against the same opponent in Jeddah a year later.
“I’m doing good, I’m happy and I’m hungry. I don’t care how Tyson will be this week. I’m ready,” Usyk said.
“For me May 18 is important, what Tyson does in the press conferences doesn’t matter.
“I don’t think about Tyson Fury now. I’ve seen him in a lot of fights. I don’t know how he will box against me, we will see when we get into the ring.”
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Financial considerations before buying a property
Buyers should try to pay as much in cash as possible for a property, limiting the mortgage value to as little as they can afford. This means they not only pay less in interest but their monthly costs are also reduced. Ideally, the monthly mortgage payment should not exceed 20 per cent of the purchaser’s total household income, says Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching.
“If it’s a rental property, plan for the property to have periods when it does not have a tenant. Ensure you have enough cash set aside to pay the mortgage and other costs during these periods, ideally at least six months,” she says.
Also, shop around for the best mortgage interest rate. Understand the terms and conditions, especially what happens after any introductory periods, Ms Glynn adds.
Using a good mortgage broker is worth the investment to obtain the best rate available for a buyer’s needs and circumstances. A good mortgage broker will help the buyer understand the terms and conditions of the mortgage and make the purchasing process efficient and easier.
THE BIO:
Favourite holiday destination: Thailand. I go every year and I’m obsessed with the fitness camps there.
Favourite book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It’s an amazing story about barefoot running.
Favourite film: A League of their Own. I used to love watching it in my granny’s house when I was seven.
Personal motto: Believe it and you can achieve it.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
Commentary
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
Criticism
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
Editorial Writing
Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx.) Herald-Press
Editorial Cartooning
Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
Breaking News Photography
Photography Staff of Reuters
Feature Photography
Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press
Audio Reporting
Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
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Veil (Object Lessons)
Rafia Zakaria
Bloomsbury Academic
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Specs
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Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.