Tyson Fury defies coronavirus advice, sinks pints of Guinness in a bar

Fury popped down to his local for a pint - or several - of Guinness just a day after the government advised people to stay away from pubs. [Courtesy]

Tyson Fury clearly has no plans to adhere to the government's advice to avoid pubs during the coronavirus outbreak.

The heavyweight world champion popped down to his local on Tuesday to celebrate St Patrick's Day.

With a pint of Guinness in hand, Fury was joined by his fighting cousin Isaac Lowe - and an almost life-size statue of himself.

The government had warned just 24 hours earlier that people should avoid pubs, restaurants and theatres as the coronavirus crisis continues.

The outbreak has killed more than 7,500 people worldwide and much of Europe is in lockdown.

But Fury's relaxed demeanour suggests he has no concerns about either the virus or indeed UK Anti-Doping's new investigation into his failed drugs test in 2015.

Fury and his cousin Hughie initially tested positive for nandrolone five years ago, which they subsequently blamed on eating uncastrated wild boar meat, citing a farmer called Martin Carefoot who claimed to have provided them with the product.

After an expensive and elongated stand-off with UK Anti-Doping, Fury and Hughie received retrospective two-year bans and were able to resume their careers in December 2017.

But in a Mail on Sunday report, Carefoot denied having provided the Fury team with the meat, insisting he was offered £25,000 to make up the story in order to aid their case.

Fury's promoter Frank Warren, who was not involved at the time, said he had previously been sent letters by Carefoot.

He added: "Tyson has never ever met this man and his story is total bulls***."

And World Boxing Council president Sulaiman said the new allegations were irrelevant in regard to Fury's right to continue to hold the organisation's sanctioning belt.

He said: "Personally, I prefer to believe Tyson Fury ahead of someone who has already admitted to lying in legal documents for financial gain.

"The person who has claimed he accepted money to lie should be the one on trial, in my personal opinion, especially when he has waited five years to tell his story.

"Secondly, around this time Tyson was not involved with the WBC, he did not fight Klitschko for the WBC belt, it was for other titles, so this issue does not impact on him being our heavyweight world champion."