Tyson Fury makes passionate plea to end knife crime after his cousin is stabbed to death

Tyson Fury has said his cousin was stabbed to death last night, making an emotional plea for the end of knife crime.

Fury tweeted: “My cousin was murdered last night.

“Stabbed in the neck, this is becoming ridiculous idiots carry knives. THIS NEEDS TO STOP.”

The world heavyweight boxing champion concluded: “RIP RICO BURTON.”

The 'Gypsy King' repeated his call in an Instagram post, writing: “This needs to stop, ASAP.

“[The] UK government needs to bring in 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.

“RIP Rico Burton, may the lord God grand you a good place in heaven."

“See you soon.”

He ended with the hashtag #onlycowardscarryweapons.

It is not yet known where Burton was allegedly murdered, but knife crime continues to rise across Britain.

Figures released at the end of 2021 showed that 37,589 knife and offensive weapon offences were recorded between September 2020 and September 2021.

That’s an increase of three percent over the same period the previous year.

However, over that same period the number of offenders receiving an immediate prison sentence decreased to 28 percent, down from around 36 to 38 percent between 2017 and 2020.

Members of the governing Conservative Party have spoken in recent times about the alarming rise in knife crime, claiming that their government aims to crack down hard.

However, last year saw just 5,615 people jailed for carrying or using a knife to threaten people, down from a high of 7,404 in 2018.

Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke told the Daily Express: "The Government has made clear it wants to crack down on knife crime.

"But to do that, we need the courts to do their job.

"It is not good enough just passing community and suspended sentences.

"It won't bring about a real deterrent. Knife crime has become a scourge on our youth society.

"These sorts of sentences do not send a deterrent message."

Tyson Fury spent last night watching the fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua, as Usyk retained his world heavyweight titles against his British opponent in Saudi Arabia.

After the fight, Fury - who has claimed to be retired since his previous victory over Dillian Whyte - said that he would come back, urging the promoters for a potential unification bout between him and Usyk to 'get [their] chequebooks out'.