Tyson Fury insists he was never bothered by Dillian Whyte’s refusal to participate in the buildup to their upcoming heavyweight championship clash.
Much has been made of the decision by Whyte (28-2, 19KOs) to not do any media ahead of what has been billed as the biggest all-British heavyweight fight in history. The longtime top-rated contender declined to attend the March 1 press conference to formally announce their April 23 headliner at Wembley Stadium in London, nor has the Brixton, England-based heavyweight even taken to social media until earlier this week to draw attention to the fight.
Manchester’s Fury (31-0-1, 22KOs) had plenty to say about his opponent’s absence at the time but has since taken a softer stance on the subject.
“It was only an announcement press conference. It wasn’t an actual press conference for the fight,” downplayed Fury during a recent Zoom media conference call to discuss the upcoming pay-per-view event. “I’m sure at the fight week press conference, we’ll be talking to each other then.
“The first press conference was just an announcement for the fight. We both had to go into our training camps from there. We really didn’t need much to be fair. It was what it was. I thought I handled it pretty good on my own, single handedly. We sold out Wembley Stadium. We didn’t do a bad job to be fair.
Fury has also been uncharacteristically quiet in recent weeks, making the media rounds early in the promotion before informing his fans through social media that he would go dark for the next several weeks until it was closer to the fight. Ticket sales clearly suggest that little to no hype was needed, with the event having already sold more than 90,000 and with an expected crowd of 94,000—a record for a boxing event in the United Kingdom—on hand for the second defense of Fury’s lineal/WBC heavyweight championship reign.
As such, the pair of top heavyweights were afforded the chance to focus solely on training camp. Fury was more accessible to his bosses while training in Morecambe, Lancashire, UK. Whyte was more than 1,200 miles away in Portugal, where he has spent his past several training camps and where he has chosen to remain in seclusion ahead of his first career title fight.
“He took himself away in training in Portugal. He lives over there. He’s kept to himself, he’s been training,” accepted Fury. “Now that training is finished, he’s getting adapted to fight week and will do his part. We all have a part to play.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
