Dua Lipa fans have been left baffled and disgusted by a boxing promoter’s comments after the pop superstar was unexpectedly dragged into the launch of Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury’s long-awaited fight.

Saudi boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh made the bizarre comments about the 31-year-old singer during Wednesday’s launch press conference for Anthony Joshua and Fury’s heavyweight showdown.

The two British fighters finally came face-to-face after years of false starts, with their Battle of Britain now officially scheduled for December 11 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.

However, while explaining why the fight had ended up in Wales rather than London, Alalshikh suddenly turned his attention to Dua.

‘I will be honest today, I know that London wouldn’t give me the stadium until 2am,’ he told the crowd.

He then claimed Dua would not perform at the event because ‘she doesn’t like boxing’ and suggested ‘maybe she doesn’t like me’.

After somebody in the crowd appeared to respond, Alalshikh went further, saying: ‘No, I think she has something with the Arab. And, you know, it is my blood. I cannot change it.’

There is no evidence Dua’s decision not to perform had anything to do with Alalshikh’s ethnicity, and she has not publicly explained why she declined the offer.

Unsurprisingly, the unusual tangent left viewers wondering how on earth Dua had found herself being discussed at a boxing press conference in the first place.

‘Sombody plz explain why dua lipa is getting brought up at a boxing match,’ one bewildered fan wrote on X.

Another criticised the suggestion behind Alalshikh’s comments, writing: ‘The way hes blaming a whole ethnicity cause she said no to a boxing match is actually insane behavior. like bro shes albanian she probably just doesnt care about your event 😭.’

‘Bro this is just embarrassing….’ someone else said, while another declared: ‘She’s honestly such an icon he’s embarrassing himself.’

A fifth viewer was even more unimpressed, writing: ‘Ugh, she was right not to go this whole speech was disgusting.’

Dua’s potential involvement in the fight has actually been a strangely persistent subplot to the Joshua-Fury saga.

Earlier this year, Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, was reported to be particularly keen on getting the Levitating hitmaker involved in the event.

At one point, he even suggested she needed to perform at the fight if it was to go ahead in London.

It was unclear how seriously that apparent ultimatum was intended, but BBC Sport subsequently reported that Dua had indeed been approached about performing and had declined the offer.

She is therefore not expected to provide the soundtrack when Joshua and Fury finally settle a rivalry that has been a decade in the making.

Big-name musical performances have become increasingly common at major boxing events backed by Alalshikh.

Liam Gallagher performed at Wembley Stadium before Joshua’s 2024 world-title fight against Daniel Dubois, while Eminem performed ahead of Terence Crawford’s fight with Israil Madrimov that same year.

Dua or no Dua, Joshua and Fury are now preparing for one of the biggest all-British fights in recent memory after years of negotiations repeatedly falling apart.

Joshua has not fought since his December victory over Jake Paul, breaking the YouTuber’s jaw in the sixth round.

Fury, meanwhile, came out of retirement earlier this year and comfortably outpointed Arslanbek Makhmudov in April.

The pair were considerably more cordial than many might have expected when they finally faced off in London, with Fury praising his rival’s career and both men joking on stage.

Somehow, it was Dua Lipa who ended up providing the controversy.

Representatives of Dua Lipa have been contacted for comment.

Callum Turner’s dad missed son’s wedding to Dua Lipa to attend another celebrity marriage

As someone who’s currently planning a wedding, I can tell you that sorting the guest list is hard.

Every time you think you’ve got it sorted, there’s always some uncle, cousin or a friend of a friend who comes out of the woodwork to ruin your carefully arranged seating plan by asking for a plus one.

And don’t get me started on people dropping out at the last minute.

Still, judging by Callum Turner’s wedding to Dua Lipa, it seems I’m not the only person grappling with guests.

It’s been reported that Callum’s dad, Laurence Cole, didn’t attend his son’s Sicilian wedding.

Instead, he went to the wedding of Spandau Ballet drummer John Keeble’s daughter, Jamie Rae Keeble, in north London.

‘Laurence and Callum have been estranged over the years, but it was nonetheless strange that he was at a wedding on the same day his son got married,’ a source told The Sun.

‘Laurence kept a low profile, but some people questioned the fact that he was at a wedding on the same day his son was marrying Dua.’

Callum, 36, has made no secret of the ‘loose’ relationship he had with his father – who emigrated to Australia soon after his birth – growing up.

‘The thing I always found interesting in my childhood was, yeah, I was growing up on an estate, single mum, working-class, but then I also had all these colourful characters around,’ he told The Evening Standard. ‘It wasn’t about navigating two worlds. There were three, four, five more.’

Meanwhile, in a separate interview with The Hollywood Reporter: ‘I didn’t understand the relationship between the son and the father. It was completely alien to me.’

In recent years, however, Callum has built more of a relationship with his dad.

Last Christmas, Callum was seen enjoying a family dinner with Laurence along with his younger half-siblings, Louis and Clemmie.

The Sun reports that Laurence is in regular contact with his son, and is reportedly ‘unashamedly proud’ of his boy.

Thankfully, while Callum’s dad might not have been in attendance, the Bond wannabe still had plenty of familial support.

Both Clemmie and Louis were spotted at the wedding along with his mum, Rose.