Bas Rutten offers to help Tommy Fury

The former UFC champ said he is a big fan of the Fury family.

Jake Paul is supposed to be boxing Tommy Fury on August 24 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. However, that bout is now under threat.

Fury was stopped from boarding a flight to the US yesterday. That might indicate that Fury is subject to a travel ban imposed by the US government because of alleged links to accused Irish drug cartel boss Daniel Kinahan.

Fury’s older brother, Tyson Fury, has reportedly been denied entry to the US on two occasions ever since the US imposed sanctions against Kinahan.

Kinahan founded MTK Global, which used to represent Tyson Fury (and many other top boxers and MMA fighters) before it folded in May. Tyson Fury has also been pictured and videoed with Kinahan on multiple occasions, most recently in February.

Tyson Fury has also publicly thanked Kinahan for negotiating his fight contracts.

Tommy Fury, who was never represented by MTK or been pictured with Kinahan, has stated he has no idea why he would be barred entry to the US.

If the fight does go ahead, Fury stands to earn his highest purse to date. He would also get a chance to shut Jake Paul up, someone he has been feuding with for over a year. Someone willing to help Fury in this endeavour is former UFC champion Bas Rutten.

The Karate Combat commentator recently talked about Fury vs. Paul and his eagerness to join Team Fury.

“I would love to train Tommy Fury, are you kidding?,” said Rutten (ht Give Me Sport). “Shit, for the Fury family; I love Tyson. Major fan of this guy and I think [that] we can do some damage.”

“Yeah, it would be great,” continued Rutten. “I’ll be in the corner. Yeah, at least he has a cornerman. I think if he can get inside his head and show a few things that I had and that I was very successful with against really good boxers in Holland. Then a guy like that who has already picked up really great boxing while he picks that up really fast and he’s going to use that to his advantage.”

UFC Hall of Famer was a successful kickboxer before transitioning to MMA in the early 90s. After a storied run in the Pancrase organization he joined the UFC in 1999.

His debut fight was a TKO over Tsuyoshi Kohsaka at UFC 18. His second bout was against Kevin Randleman for the vacant UFC heavyweight title. He won the fight by split decision.

Rutten would vacate his UFC title due to injury. Rutten only had one more pro fight after that win and retired from the sport in 2006.