UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) will investigate Tyson Fury and his cousin Hughie Fury, after Martin Carefoot claimed that a member of the boxer’s team offered him £25,000 to lie about how they each failed a drugs test in 2015.
After the initial investigation, the Furys were handed backdated two-year bans in 2017, for testing positive to nandrolone.
However, Sportsmail reports there is new evidence in the case, which could lead to a possible eight-year suspension for tampering with evidence.
Carefoot who is a Lancashire farmer, has come out to say he lied when he submitted two written statements to the Furys’ legal team in 2017, by claiming he 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”.
Fury defeated Deontay Wilder last month to claim the WBC heavyweight title and is set for a trilogy fight with the American.
A farmer said he was offered £25,000 to say he sold the meat to ‘Team Fury’ – but promoter Frank Warren called this claim “a load of rubbish”. Ukad has refused to comment.
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Being found guilty of tampering with the first investigation, which followed those positive tests, could result in an eight-year suspension.
Lancashire-based farmer Martin Carefoot provided evidence to a Ukad investigation stating he had supplied the team with wild boar – but in a newspaper interview, now says he never actually did so.
The Mail on Sunday reports that he says he was asked for assistance by a friend who was familiar with ‘Team Fury’, but that he never received the promised payment.
But boxing promoter Warren, who works with world heavyweight champion Fury now but did not at the time, said:
“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 speak to a newspaper.
“How anybody can take this man seriously is beyond belief. Tyson has never met this man in his life. What a load of rubbish. We’ll leave this with Ukad to look into and don’t expect it to go any further.
“It looks like while the football season has been paused, there’s nothing to write about and silly season has instead commenced.”
Both Fury and his cousin Hughie, a British heavyweight fighter, returned positive tests for banned anabolic steroid nandrolone in February 2015 but were not charged by Ukad until June 2016. Between the two dates, Tyson Fury won the WBA, WBO and IBF world heavyweight titles from Wladimir Klitschko.
Both fighters insisted they “never knowingly or deliberately committed a violation” and were allowed to resume their boxing careers from December 2017 after accepting backdated two-year doping bans.
The drawn-out case drew scrutiny as before its conclusion Ukad feared becoming insolvent or requiring a government bailout over the dispute.
Tyson Fury suffered with depression and abused both drugs and alcohol during a 30-month spell away from boxing after his win over Klitschko.
Since his return in June 2018, he has been held up as an inspiration as a result of his dramatic weight loss and a run of wins that culminated in him becoming world champion for the second time by beating Deontay Wilder in February to claim the WBC belt.
On Sunday, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said the farmer’s claims would “not impact” Fury’s position as champion.
Sulaiman told The Sun: “Personally, I prefer to believe Tyson Fury ahead of someone who has already admitted to lying in legal documents for financial gain.”
BBC Sport has contacted Fury’s management team MTK Global for comment.
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