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Dillian Whyte gave what he considers a reasonable explanation Wednesday as to why, until then, he had hardly participated in the promotion of a heavyweight title fight that’ll attract 94,000 fans to Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday night.
Whyte had assured co-promoters Frank Warren and Bob Arum that he would attend the final press conference for his highly anticipated showdown with Tyson Fury. The London-based contender followed through on that promise, but Whyte spoke in vague generalities when the moderator of this last press conference asked about his “strategy,” a reference to his lack of involvement in the promotion.
“It’s no strategy,” Whyte said. “Listen, it’s two sides to every story, you know? You [can’t] hear one side of the story cuz one side says a lot of things. Because I ain’t been saying anything, everyone’s [saying], ‘Aw, you’re scared. You’re hiding.’ I ain’t scared of sh!t! I ain’t hiding from sh!t! It’s like this. It’s like this – stuff need to get done. Obviously, the fight was signed, but there’s other things that’s happening behind the scenes, other things been sorting out because obviously we and Frank come together, which, you know, obviously credit due to him, obviously. My team, we been trying to pick up the phone for a long time, get stuff done.”
Warren previously criticized Whyte for failing to appear at the initial press conference to promote the fight, which took place March 1 in London. The president of Queensberry Promotions stated during that press event that he offered to fly Whyte roundtrip on a private jet from his training camp in Portugal to participate.
Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs), whose guarantee for facing Fury is a career-high $7,384,500, indicated Wednesday that simply did not want to attend the first press conference. It was more convenient for the Jamaican-born boxer to participate in this final press conference because he had to fly from Portugal to London for fight week anyway.
“I hear people talking sh!t, like Gareth Davies saying I shouldn’t be fighting for not turning up to the press conference,” Whyte said in reference to a longtime boxing pundit. “I’m like, bro, you been around boxing a long time. Don’t be stupid. You been in the game. You understand how these things work. There’s two sides. Everyone need to come to an agreement. You understand? And if the agreement doesn’t reach, then I’m not gonna fly all the way from Portugal, waste two days traveling, doing this, doing that. What for?
“I’m training, training for the biggest fight of my life. Obviously, Tyson Fury, you know, he need to concentrate, he need to focus on training, not fricking wasting time flying. If things is done, I’m happy and it’s worth it, then I’ll do it. I’m not doing anything if it’s not worth it. You feel me? Simple as that.”
Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) has willingly participated in multiple press conferences in person and a conference call on Zoom to promote their ESPN Pay-Per-View and BT Sport Box Office main event.
The WBC heavyweight champion’s purse for his second title defense is $29,538,000. The winner will add a 10-percent win bonus to his guarantee – $4,102,500 from Warren’s whopping winning purse bid of $41,025,000.
If their fight results in a draw or no-contest, the additional 10 percent would be split 80-20 in favor of Fury, the percentage the WBC approved for their mandated championship match.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.