World heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has called on the government to invest more in preventing knife and gang crime, a year after his cousin was fatally stabbed in the neck outside a bar.
The elite boxer, 35, said that modern Britain was a ‘very dangerous place’ and that Rishi Sunak’s government had a duty to change things.
Fury, who was recently the star of a Netflix documentary, suffered a devastating loss last year after his cousin, Rico Burton, was stabbed to death in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, in August 2022 during a mass brawl between two groups of men.
He said to the Mirror of his cousin’s death while training in Saudi Arabia, where is is facing off against former UFC champion Francis Ngannou tonight: ‘One life lost affects up to 50 different people. Families distraught for ever. It’s difficult to recover – I know it is.’
Fury said that the government needed to get into gear and make significant changes: ‘Something’s got to happen. It’s down to the government to create more opportunities for people coming from a deprived background. Don’t victimise them.’
Tyson Fury (pictured) named his seventh son with his wife Paris after his beloved cousin
Rico Burton (pictured) was stabbed to death last August in Manchester
Fury called on Rishi Sunak’s (pictured) government to make the changes needed to reduce gang and knife crime
The boxer added attitudes in Britain also needed to change: ‘The youths of today don’t respect the police, there’s no real punishment for serious crime, and it’s like going to prison is a top thing.
‘It’s very hard to escape the ghetto and it’s a massive circle of being on the estates and living that gang culture.
‘How many people from the ghetto, from the estates, get off the estates? It’s very rare.’
Earlier this year, Liam O’Pray was jailed for life for the murder of Rico Burton, 31.
Rico’s mother Deborah said in a victim impact statement read out in court: ‘On the day he died, a piece of me died inside. I have had my heart ripped out and cut into pieces.
‘I feel that my son’s life was stolen away from us. That terrible night ruined my life forever and that of my whole family.
Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou are due to do battle on Saturday evening after a full card in Riyadh
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‘I wish it was me and not my son Rico, and I would do anything to bring him back. I keep thinking he is coming home from a night out and thinking he will come through the door.
‘At times I find myself lying under the bed crying and holding a picture of Rico. I will never forget his beautiful big smile. I still don’t know why or understand why but I pray this doesn’t happen to any other mother and child.
‘I forced myself to come to court everyday. I was very close to Rico and described him as a mam’s boy. I miss him so much. No mother should have to bury their child.’
Fury, who named his seventh child with his wife Paris after his cousin, said: ‘When a young kid thrusts a 10-inch kitchen knife in another one – for what reason?
‘”He bumped me in a queue” or “He knocked my drink out of my hand a month ago”?’
Fury and Ngannou will go head-to-head in a battle being dubbed the ‘Battle of the Baddest’ in Saudi Arabia, in what will be the latter’s first officially sanctioned professional boxing bout.
Fury, widely regarded as one of the best heavyweights of all time, is heavy favourite for the fight as he enters the world of crossover boxing against the former MMA star.
There have been no talks of a potential rematch in an MMA octagon, where Ngannou has been so successful throughout his career as a brutal heavyweight, but a future bout has not been ruled out.