SPORT: UKRAIN’S WAR IN SPORT
Tyson Fury promises that he and his father John will join Klitschkos brothers to fight Russia.

The heavy­weight cham­pi­on was speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence ahead of his fight next month against Dil­lian Whyte — who did not show up.

Asked about for­mer oppo­nent Wladimir and his broth­er Vitali tak­ing up arms to defend Ukraine with fel­low heavy­weight Olek­san­dr Usyk, Fury said, “[It’s] fan­tas­tic. I’ll be the first to join if Eng­land gets involved, or America.

“I’ll be first in line for the job, my dad will be first in line for the job, and all the boys.

“We’ll all sign up to defend — that’s what I have to say.

“I think if you come from this coun­try, live in this coun­try, stand up for it. Love your wife and fight for your country.”

Wladimir — who had an unde­feat­ed 11-year run in the ring end­ed by Fury — recent­ly called on the world to “act now” to help defend Ukraine against the Russ­ian invasion.

In a video post­ed on Insta­gram on Sat­ur­day, the 45-year-old — whose broth­er Vitali is the may­or of Kiev — said, “I’m Wladimir Klitschko, and I’m address­ing the world to stop this war that Rus­sia has started.” .

“Just today, civil­ians were shot by rock­ets, with spe­cial oper­a­tions, civil­ians were killed. And this is hap­pen­ing in the heart of Europe.

“There is no time to wait because this will lead to a human­i­tar­i­an catastrophe.

“You must act now to stop Russ­ian aggres­sion with every­thing you can get now.

“In an hour, or tomor­row, it will be too late.

“Please take action now. Do not wait. Act now. Stop this war.”

IBF, WBO and WBA cham­pi­on Olek­san­dr Usyk also sus­pend­ed his career to defend his home­land and also plead­ed for the war to end.

In a video post­ed on Insta­gram, the 35-year-old said, “Dear Ukraine and Ukraini­ans, some wrote about my escape. This is not true, I went on a work trip and now I am back. I am home.

“Friends, we must unite and over­come this, because we are fac­ing excep­tion­al difficulties.

“I am very over­whelmed with emo­tions and I am very wor­ried for my coun­try and for our peo­ple. Friends, we must stop this war and we must do it together.”