Frank Warren thinks Dillian Whyte should be sending him a thank you note and a box of chocolates.
Warren, the head of Queensberry Promotions, recently won the rights to promote the heavyweight title bout between his charge, Tyson Fury, who owns WBC heavyweight belt, against his mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte. Warren, in tandem with Fury’s co-promoter Top Rank Inc., won the purse bid by turning in a bid of $41,025,000, nearly $9 million more than the $32,222,222 that Whyte’s promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, offered. Warren’s amount was a record for a purse bid.
Now the parties have to swap signed contracts in order for the fight to actually take place. Both sides have traded heated words over the past few months, with Whyte balking at the terms of the purse split, which is 80/20 in favor of the champion, Fury.
In light of the perceived acrimonious tension between the two camps, it was asked of Warren if he expects Whyte to be a willing participant in the promotion of the potential bout. Given that Whyte, who hails from Jamaica but lives in London, will be making more through Top Rank and Queensberry than through Matchroom, Warren believes Whyte should be raring to promote the bout.
Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) will earn $29,538,000, while Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) will pocket $7,384,500. According to the rules of the WBC, the winner will receive a bonus of $4,102,500, or 10% of the winning bid.
“We all have back and forths in boxing,” Warren told IFL TV. “We’re not getting married. I didn’t bid to get married. It’s a business transaction. We’re paying a lot of money to him to ensure that he cooperates and works with us to make it a success. Why wouldn’t he do that? I don’t understand why it would be anything different.
“Thank God we did bid. He’d be getting two million less if he was fighting with Matchroom.”
More than anything, Warren believes Whyte should be relieved now that he is finally getting his title shot. Whyte has long complained that his status as a mandatory challenger for the WBC belt has never materialized into a title shot.
“What is it, over a thousand days he’s (Whyte) been waiting for his opportunity?” Warren said. “He’s got it now. We’ve delivered it for him and he’s getting his highest ever purse.
“And thank God the bid that we put in gives him more money than he would have got had we not bid. He’s getting two million more dollars with us and he’s got an opportunity to get more with the 10% that’s going to be sitting there for the winner.”
