Dillian Whyte claims a broken foot hampered his performance against Moses Itauma

Dillian Whyte claims he twice suffered a fractured foot in the build-up to his one-round loss to Moses Itauma in August 2025.

The veteran appeared to be caught high on the head by the rapid-fire Itauma early in the bout and never recover. But there was another factor at play, according to Whyte.

The first time it happened, Whyte says, he was out running. The pain “felt like someone had dropped a dumbbell on my foot,” he told Sky Sports.

"I was running, and I felt it [injury to foot] and then I went to spar and I was sparring big, agile guys, and someone was pressing me, I stepped back the wrong way and then it just fractured clean.

"I made the best of the situation and had a decent camp. I felt good during fight week and really thought I would beat Moses."

Whyte, plotting a comeback at 38, hasn’t fought since that humbling loss. Itauma 

BoxingScene understands that a leg issue was reported to official fight doctors and that particular attention was paid to that during extensive pre-fight medicals.

However, according to those at the scene, Whyte was using his own personal doctor, Harjinder Singh, on the night.

"I started warming up, jumped a little bit of rope, and then reinjured the foot. Completely fractured it again," said Whyte.

"We had to call the doctor who was with me to examine it. He advised me not to fight and I said 'no'. There's no way I'm going to come all the way to Saudi and not fight last minute.

"I was confident that I would still be able to drag Moses into the later rounds and stop him as [Filip] Hrgovic recently did."

"I didn't want to mention it, go into it, and take away from his win, because he done alright. I got clocked and he won the fight.

"I didn't want to go on too much about it and I think people got carried away with the fact that I got beat in a round by Moses.

"I don't think people would draw the same conclusions if they had the full facts.

"People have short memories and they like to say 'retire because of this, retire because of that' but what they don't realise is we're members of a rare generation of entertaining British heavyweight boxers that are coming to the end of our careers.”

Whyte has expressed his desire to fight Johnny Fisher, who was unconvincing during his September 26 victory over Michael Pirotton at London’s Copper Box Arena.