WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who gave a talk at Son Amar in Mallorca as part of his The After Party Tour on Sunday night, has urged the UK government to take tougher action against knife crime after his cousin was stabbed to death in the early hours of Sunday.
British media reported that Fury's cousin Rico Burton, 31, was one of two people attacked in Manchester. Burton and a 17-year-old boy both suffered stab wounds, with the latter still in hospital with serious injuries.
"My cousin was murdered last night, stabbed in the neck, this is becoming ridiculous idiots carry knives," Fury said in a post on Instagram.
"This needs to stop ASAP. UK government needs to bring higher sentencing for knife crime, it's a pandemic and you don't know how bad it is until it's one of your own!
"Life is very precious and it can be taken away very quick enjoy every moment."
Fury's post included an image which read "Stop knife crime" and a hashtag saying "only cowards carry weapons".
Police have launched a murder inquiry into the incident, with Superintendent Ben Ewart of Greater Manchester Police telling a news conference that two men, aged 21 and 20, have been arrested over the "spontaneous and unplanned" attack and remain in custody.
A report by Britain's Office for National Statistics in July said that police-recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments (knife-enabled crime) rose by 10% to 49,027 offences in England and Wales during the year to March 2022.
In the meantime, Oleksandr Usyk has turned his sights on rival heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury after beating Britain's Anthony Joshua on a split points decision to retain his WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts in Jeddah.
The "Rage on the Red Sea" in Saudi Arabia was a rematch of a fight in London in September, which the Ukrainian won on a unanimous decision to take Joshua's belts, but with more intensity and emotion.
The pressure was on both former Olympic champions, with Usyk this time representing a country fighting for its existence after a Russian invasion while Joshua was battling for his boxing future.
Usyk appeared comfortably ahead as the final bell rang at the King Abdullah Sports City Arena but the American judge surprisingly awarded the fight 115-113 to Joshua.
The British and Ukrainian judges decided 115-113 and 116-112 to Usyk.
The victory took the 35-year-old's professional record to 20 fights undefeated while Joshua, 32, suffered a third defeat in what could prove a watershed in his career.
Joshua, who had held aloft the Ukrainian flag with Usyk as they waited for the decision in what seemed an acceptance of defeat, then had an uncharacteristic meltdown.
He took two of the belts, dropping them as he left the ring and headed for the dressing room before turning around and stepping back between the ropes to take the microphone and address the crowd.
"Usyk is one hell of a fighter. That's just emotion," declared the Briton.
"For this guy to beat me tonight, maybe I could have done better but it shows the levels of hard work he must have put in, so please give him a round of applause as our heavyweight champion of the world.
"I was studying Ukraine and all the champions from your amazing country. I've never been there. What's happening there, I don't know but it's not nice ... under those circumstances he's managed to become champion."
Usyk's thoughts then turned to the next chapter and another Briton to beat, although WBC champion Fury has declared himself retired.
"I am convinced he wants to fight me. I want to fight him. And if I'm not fighting Tyson Fury, I'm not fighting at all," Usyk told the crowd through a ringside interpreter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed a "difficult but important and necessary victory."
"Defending a world championship title is a symbol that whoever is from the Cossack tradition will not give up what is his, will fight for it and will win without any doubt," he wrote on Facebook.