Farmer's claims cast doubt over Fury doping case

An English farmer is at the center of a retroactive controversy involving WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) is looking into allegations of a Daily Mail report this week that farmer Martin Carefoot said he was offered 25,000 pounds (roughly $30,000) in 2017 to provide an alibi to support the fighter and his cousin Hughie, who is also a world-ranked heavyweight.

Fury and his cousin received backdated two-year suspensions from UKAD in 2017 after they tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone. The pair blamed the 2015 test results on unwittingly consuming infected wild boar meat, which Carefoot testified he sold to the fighters.

Now the farmer is claiming he did not supply the meat, and was offered money by "a member of Team Fury" to say he had done so.

Promoter Frank Warren, who currently works with Tyson Fury, has described the farmer's claims as "outrageous" and "a load of rubbish".

"We'll leave this with UKAD to look into and don't expect it to go any further," Warren said last week.

"I got a letter last September from this farmer making all these allegations about Tyson's case. In the letter he said he'd lied and signed statements under oath, which is perjury.

"I wasn't involved with Tyson at the time of his case, but I asked him about it and he said he'd never heard of this farmer. He never knew him. That was it.

"The farmer said he was promised money, so he was prepared to lie, according to his letter. We spoke, and I told him to go and see UKAD if he's got a problem. Obviously, he chose not to do that and he went to the newspaper instead.

"Given the fact there's no sport going on in the world right now, the paper is making a big thing of it, giving it a big splash. But they're relying on the word of an admitted liar and perjurer. From my perspective, it's ridiculous."

With regard to the new claims against the Furys, UKAD told the Daily Mail: "We will always review any potential evidence in relation to any anti-doping offense, and take investigatory action where necessary."

After Fury and Deontay Wilder fought to a draw last year, Fury won the rematch by knocking out the previously unbeaten American in Las Vegas on Feb 22 to become WBC champ.

In November 2015－after testing positive for nandrolone, but before he was charged and suspended－the 6-foot-9, 275-pound "Gypsy King" won the WBA, IBF and WBO titles by beating Ukraine's Wladimir Klitschko.

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said the latest issue "does not impact on him (Fury) being our heavyweight world champion" because Fury was "not involved with the WBC" at the time of his case with UKAD.

Meanwhile, Wilder has activated the rematch clause to pave the way for a rubber match with Fury, but Warren said neither side will pursue negotiations until after the coronavirus pandemic is resolved.

"The pandemic has derailed everything, including the rematch," the promoter wrote in his TalkSport column on Thursday. "At the moment we're just in the hands of the government and their scientists until we know what's supposed to be good for everybody and what the process is going to be.

"Tyson versus Anthony Joshua in December remains what we'd ideally like to have happen. I hope by then things will have settled down. That's the fight everybody wants to see and the fight we all want to make."