Tyson Fury claims Saudi Arabia is a ‘very safe place’ and people should not judge

Tyson Fury has delivered a ringing endorsement of Saudi Arabia, claiming that it is a “very safe” country to which he would happily take his family on holiday.

Fury, who will receive a reported £160 million for two fights in Saudi Arabia - Saturday’s controversial victory against Francis Ngannou and then against Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight title later in ‘Riyadh Season’ – also said that people should not judge before experiencing the country themselves.

In a video that was published by Arab News, Fury said that he was giving “a message to the world”. It followed a plea last week from Amnesty International, who have repeatedly accused Saudi Arabia of ‘sportswashing’, for the WBC champion to do some “independent research” into the country’s human rights record.

“So, where can we start?” Fury said. “It’s been absolutely fantastic. First of all, the weather is fantastic every single day. Not too hot. Just right.

“I would bring my family here because, do you know why? It’s a very safe place. Zero crime here. I reckon you could leave a million pound watch on the side and no one would touch it. I like the way the people are here. They’re so welcoming.

“Everyone is about family and it’s all about embracing everybody and unity which is weird because everything you’ve been told before coming here is like ‘oh watch what you do over there, watch what you say’ and then coming here it’s a totally different experience and I found that out for myself in 2019.

“Here’s another lesson. Never be quick to judge before you actually know the right information and find out for yourself. I think we start with massive shout out to the Riyadh Season and above that a massive shout out to Turki Alalshikh [chairman of the Saudi general authority for entertainment] and above that a massive shout out to the big boss himself MBS [Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman].”

Fury had also last week contrasted his treatment in Saudi Arabia to fighting in London, where he respectively beat Derek Chisora and Dillian Whyte in his two most recent fights.

“We’re on about governments,” Fury told IFL TV. “Has the government ever given special treatment for the Gypsy King?’ Do they even get me through customs at Heathrow Airport, quicker than anybody else? Or do I wait for two hours in the queue?

“I’ve never even had a thank you letter [from the UK government]. Nothing. I’ve never had a well done. The amount of money I’ve raised in London for the last two fights. I’ve probably brought, hundreds of hundreds of millions, I’ve brought to London.

“Here I’ve got governments very happy that I’m here. You come over here and you get treated like an absolute legend. And you go home and it’s just like ‘you owe us’.”

Fury should step out of the 5-star Saudi bubble

Ahead of what was surely his worst performance in recent memory, Fury did at least land one salient point during his various pronouncements on Saudi Arabia.

“Never be quick to judge before you actually know the right information and find out for yourself,” he declared.

It followed a series of ringing endorsements for a country in which he has already earned many millions without noticeably venturing beyond a five-star bubble like nothing even the sport of boxing has ever seen.

A-list celebrities from Cristiano Ronaldo and Eminem to Kanye West and Conor McGregor hob-nobbed with what is surely the greatest cast of boxing legends that have ever previously been assembled in one room.

And for what? A non-title fight between Fury and an MMA specialist in Francis Ngannou who was making his professional debut.

By his own description, Fury was treated “like an absolute legend” throughout – fair enough given that he was the show’s star attraction – but that hardly makes him an authority on the country’s crime-rate and everyday values.

It was just the same at the football World Cup in Qatar last year when no player (or indeed journalist) could remain within the wonderfully efficient Fifa / Qatar 2022 bubble and claim to have any real grasp on the intricacies of the country.

It is a shame because there is actually now a particular opportunity for sportspeople like Fury to step out, educate themselves and use their voice beyond issuing “shout-outs” to those people investing so extravagantly in their sport.

‘Do some independent research’

Felix Jakens, from Amnesty UK, for example, issued a simple request of Fury last week – one that could easily have been combined with also hearing what he was being told by those writing the cheques and running the country.

“We understand the imperative of a boxer’s career, which is to make money,” Jakens told the Guardian. “We don’t tell anybody that they shouldn’t ply their trade in Saudi Arabia. That’s entirely his decision. What we say is: Please listen to what the authorities there are telling you, do some independent research, look at the Amnesty or Human Rights Watch reports and learn about Loujain al-Hathloul, Salma al-Shehab and Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi.

“If you were prepared to speak about those individuals, that would be incredibly important. Tyson Fury’s voice to counter the sportswashing narrative of the Saudi authorities would be incredibly powerful.”

Loujain al-Hathloul is an activist who fought to change Saudi Arabia’s former ban on women drivers. She was jailed for 1,002 days (including periods in solitary confinement) and, although the law was changed in 2018, her family say that she remains subject to a travel ban. Charges against her included trying to change the Saudi political system, conspiring with foreign governments and harming national security. Rights groups called the trial “deeply flawed”.

Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University student and mother of two, was sentenced in August 2022 to 34 years in jail after retweeting critics of the Saudi leadership on social media. She was accused of “assisting those who seek to cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts”.

Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi was sentenced to death earlier this year after being accused of various offences related to his activity on YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter, in which he criticised the ruling family.

Complex issue ripe with hypocrisy

How much we should realistically expect of our sports stars – when other swathes of Western society happily do business with Saudi Arabia – is of course complex and ripe with hypocrisy. The ‘sportswashing’ debate is also nuanced. Yes, bringing major sporting events to your country undoubtedly does present a platform that can be heavily manipulated but that does still also come with an outside spotlight on human rights that previously did not exist. Some would say that this has already contributed to some welcome changes and improvements throughout a region that will clearly only grow in sporting influence.

Where that leaves boxing really depends upon your taste. That Riyadh is in the process of superseding Las Vegas (hardly a destination of unimpeachable virtue) as the fight capital of the world now feels inevitable. That curiosity fights involving MMA stars or YouTubers can sometimes rival genuine championship bouts for interest is beyond doubt. And yet nothing in sport will ever top those rare occasions like a Fury v Usyk showdown when the best really does meet the best.

The wider hope, however, is that sports stars will eventually look far beyond the riches on offer and, like some of the greats that they follow, recognise the part they could play in meaningful social change.