UK anti-doping are poised to open a new investigation into Tyson Fury and his cousin Hughie Fury after explosive allegations that a member of their team offered a farmer £25,000 to lie about how the pair failed dope tests in 2015.
While the national doping watchdog is remaining tight-lipped, Sportsmail understands they are set to act on the extraordinary new information brought to light by the Mail on Sunday yesterday. If the Furys are found guilty of a potential new charge of tampering with the initial investigation — which led to backdated two-year bans for the Furys in 2017 for positive nandrolone tests — they would each face possible eight-year suspensions for a second offence.
It comes after startling claims by Lancashire farmer Martin Carefoot who says he lied when he submitted two written statements to the Furys’ legal team in 2017 to say he had supplied the fighters with uncastrated wild boar.
The defence blamed the presence of nandrolone metabolites on the ‘ingestion of offal of uncastrated wild boar or pig, or alternatively from contaminated supplements’.
Carefoot has heaped huge uncertainty over the fighters by retracting the contents of his statements — copies of which have been seen by Sportsmail. They are marked ‘before the National Anti-Doping Panel between UK Anti-Doping v Tyson Luke Fury and Hughie Lewis Fury’ and their possible use in the Furys’ defence will be of particular relevance to any new UKAD inquiry.
The Furys have not yet addressed the allegations, which include a claim from Carefoot that he was promised £25,000 from a member of their entourage, via a friend, for his complicity. The identity of the entourage member is known to Sportsmail.
Fury posted a cryptic social media message yesterday in which he and an acquaintance were dressed as Batman and Robin, with the words: ‘We was doing a half marathon today but got cancel for ovs reasons, but we gonna do a half marathon at home, Batman & robin. @kristianblacklock@toprank @wbcboxing @mtkglobal@frank_warren_official don’t fear we coming...’
Fury and his cousin failed their respective drugs tests in February 2015 and charges were brought in June 2016. It was not until December 2017 that the matter with UKAD was resolved with a deal that saw them handed two-year bans, backdated to December 2015.
After battles with mental health, alcohol and recreational drugs, which contributed to Fury being stripped of the world titles he won against Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015, he returned to the heavyweight pinnacle by beating Deontay Wilder for the WBC belt last month.
Tyson Fury’s co-promoter Frank Warren hit back strongly at Carefoot, saying in a statement: ‘The farmer making these outrageous allegations sent me a letter last October, full of errors and basically telling me he had committed perjury by signing statements under oath and lying.
‘When I called him, he asked for money. I told him to clear off and get in contact with UKAD. He chose not to speak to UKAD but instead spoke to a newspaper.’