WATCH: Tyson Fury on accusations of homophobia: ‘I’ve a lot of gay friends’
Tyson Fury is the new world heavyweight boxing champion, after defeating Wladmir Klitschko on Saturday, and has been shortlisted for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
But he is also a controversial figure and has been accused of homophobia after comments made in the past.
But the boxer insists his remarks have been misunderstood, and said he was merely quoting the bible.
Fury trotted out the ‘some of my best friends are …’ line in his own defence.
“I’ve got quite a few gay friends actually,” he told Ciaran Jenkins on Channel 4 News last night.
“If somebody doesn’t like gay people, then you wouldn’t have any gay friends, would you?”
“I think it stems from the fans that I quoted some quotes from the bible. That I didn’t write clearly, because I didn’t write the bible.”
It remains to be seen whether that will be enough to win round people offended by the comments he made several weeks ago.
“There are only three things that need to be accomplished before the devil comes home: one of them is homosexuality being legal in countries, one of them is abortion and the other one’s paedophilia,” Fury said to the Mail on Sunday.
“Who would have thought in the 50s and 60s that those first two would be legalised?
“When I say paedophiles can be made legal, that sounds like crazy talk doesn’t it? But back in the 50s and early 60s, for them first two to be made legal would have been looked on as a crazy man again.”
