Heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte has warned Bob Arum, the co-promoter of WBC world champion Tyson Fury, to "shut up."
Whyte, who holds the interim-title, is the mandatory challenger to Fury's title. The WBC had previously ordered that Whyte must get his title shot by February 2021.
Whyte recently took legal action against the WBC to ensure that his title shot deadline is not pushed back to a later date.
Whyte is scheduled to face Alexander Povetkin on August 22 in Brentwood.
Fury has a trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder, which is targeted to happen on a date in December.
According to Whyte, the WBC have promised not to make Fury a 'franchise' champion - until he satisfies his mandatory obligation.
In recent interviews, Fury and his co-promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, have expressed very little interest in facing Whyte in the first quarter of 2021.
Arum made it clear that a fight with Whyte means very little in the United States and their overall goal is to finalize a two-fight agreement with WBO, WBA, IBF, IBO heavyweight Anthony Joshua.
Arum does not believe Whyte brings anything more to the table, in terms of promotion and finance, than Otto Wallin or Tom Schwarz.
"Bob Arum needs to shut up, that's what he needs to do, he needs to shut up," Whyte told Sky Sports News.
"Listen, the guy is a Hall of Famer, he's a nice guy and all of this, but he's just talking rubbish. He needs to chill. He needs to learn some respect for himself and have some respect for me as well, and realise that I've earnt my position, I've worked hard. Have some honour and decorum. You've been in boxing a long time, you know what boxing is like.
"His team are talking about a franchise champion and all of that, but we've intervened and stopped that. It's all good. The WBC have come out and said there's no chance we'll be making him Franchise champion, so that's a step in the right direction. He will have to fight me or vacate the belt. [Fury] would like to see me slip-up a million times over, because he would probably prefer to fight Povetkin than fight me, because Tyson Fury knows. They call him The Gypsy King, I call him The Gypsy Coward."
