By Edward Chaykovsky

Trainer Peter Fury is all smiles after being granted a special visa which allows him to enter New Zealand to work the corner of his son, Hughie Fury, who challenges Joseph Parker for the WBO world heavyweight.

As previously reported on BoxingScene.com, Peter had been denied entry to New Zealand on character grounds, because of two previous stints in prison for drug related offences.

On Friday it was revealed that Associate Minister of Immigration David Bennett decided to grant Peter Fury a visitor visa to New Zealand. The visa is for the period of March 28 - May 10. That would allow Fury to be in New Zealand for a month of preparation before the world title fight on May 6 in Auckland.

"This is a national sporting event with worldwide interest, and Mr Fury is the trainer of Hughie Fury," Bennett said to Fairfax Media. "While the decision to decline the initial application was correct according to Immigration New Zealand instruction, in this case, under section 17 of the Immigration Act 2009, I am granting a special direction to grant the visitor visa to Mr Fury."

Duco Events promoter David Higgins, who handles Parker and is staging the event, was very pleased with the decision.

"He's no risk," Higgins said. "He's devoted himself to training world champion boxers for the past 10 years, as evidence with Tyson Fury defeating Wladimir Klitschko for the world heavyweight title."

Peter Fury was handed a 10-year jail sentence in 1995 for possession and intent to supply amphetamine. In 2008 he received another two years for drug-related money laundering.

In 2013 his application for a visa into the United States was also rejected due to those two prison terms and he was unable to work the corner of his nephew Tyson Fury, who knocked out former world champion Steve Cunningham at New York's Madison Square Garden.