Fury: I was strip searched at JFK airport
World title fight almost off says Brit
SHEDDING 10st? Piece of cake. Dodging t he most concussive right hook in boxing? Easy-peasy. Winning the WBA world heavyweight title? All in a night’s work.
How about getting i nto America? Now that was a problem.
One which had Tyson Fury worried that he might be barred from being here in the City of Angels for next Saturday’s battle of t he giants with Deontay Wilder.
The tortuous process of acquiring a US visa had taken two-and-a-half years, starting just three months after his seismic shock of a victory over long-reigning Wladimir Klitschko.
Even t hen his right of passage was almost scuppered when he landed at New York’s John F Kennedy airport.
As he was putting the final touches to his weight loss and re- conditioning at the Wild Card gym in Hollywood presided over by Freddie Roach, the fabled trainer he has just added to his corner, Fury said: ‘We started this in February 2016. There were lots and lots of meetings at the US embassy.
‘We got through it. But then when I arrived in America they [immigration officers] took me away to a back room. Asked a lot of questions and I was strip-searched.
‘Why? I don’t really know. I don’t have any criminal record but I still struggled to get the visa. They said they thought I looked a shady character.
‘ There was some talk of what went off when I went to see one of Wilder’s fights in New York and that I might cause a riot.
‘And as we all know these people have the right to do whatever they want. If they say it’s Tuesday, it’s Tuesday.
‘Fight could have been off. That would have been nice. But after more than four hours they let me in.’
Fury confirmed that he always knew his father John could not be at ringside in the splendid Staples Center in downtown LA as he bids to wrest the only heavyweight belt he is yet to hold from Wilder, the hardest puncher in the world.
‘ There was never a ny chance of my father coming here,’ added Fury. ‘Not with his criminal record. He has a section 18 on his record and he knows that’s too serious to be allowed in. So he didn’t even think about trying. No point.
‘I don’t know why there was suddenly a story about me being upset. We knew the positon all along.’
A lot money was hanging in the balance — reputedly ten million dollars each for Fury and Wilder — during those long, tense moments in the interview room.
Even so, Fury still wants to box for the remainder of his career in the US.
‘After I win, the WBC belt will be staying here. You won’t see me fighting in England again. Once I win I will be the next pay-per-view star in America, the land of opportunity.’