Dillian Whyte labels Tyson Fury a “Coward,” says he ran from him

By Boxing News - 04/05/2021 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Interim WBC heavyweight champion Dillian Whyte leveled his anger at Tyson Fury today, calling him a “Coward” and claims that he ran from him “twice” when he attempted to fight him.

Dillian is all up in arms about Fury posting a Tweet this week with a picture of him standing in the front of Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, Whyte, and Oleksander Usyk.

It was perhaps the positioning of Whyte in the back of the photo that got him worked up. Dillian probably wanted himself to be in the front, standing alongside Fury to show that he’s in the same league as him despite him.

Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) earned the mandatory position to challenge Fury last month with his fourth-round knockout win over Alexander Povetkin on March 27th in Gibraltar.

The only thing that kept Whyte from getting credit for the win is the fact that the 41-year-old Povetkin was old and was coming off a serious COVID 19 illness that had him hospitalized.

Image: Dillian Whyte labels Tyson Fury a "Coward," says he ran from him

Povetkin literally looked and fought like he climbed off a hospital bed to face Whyte last month. For that reason, you couldn’t give Whyte credit for the win. Povetkin should have been resting up, recovering from his illness instead of fighting.

Here’s what got Whyte all worked up:

“There has only ever been 1,” said Fury.

Whyte’s angry replay to Fury:

“You run away from fighting me twice #coward,” said Dillian Whyte on Twitter.

You can’t blame Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) for not fighting Whyte in the last three years. Fury wouldn’t have much money fighting Dillian, as there was no interest from American boxing fans in seeing that match-up.

Since 2018, Fury has been making big cash fighting Deontay Wilder twice in huge-money fights. Why in the world would Fury bother to face Whyte when he’s making all that cash fighting Deontay?

Additionally, whatever chances that Whyte had of fighting Fury last year went down the drain when he was shockingly knocked out in five rounds by Povetkin at Eddie Hearn’s childhood home in the wealthy Brentwood, Essex neighborhood in the UK.

Once Whyte lost that fight against Povetkin, he no longer was the WBC mandatory to Fury. If Dillian had won, he’d likely have gotten a world title shot against Fury in late 2020, but he royally blew it.

Whyte was bellyaching about being the #1 WBC ranked contender for 1000+ days when Deontay Wilder held the WBC heavyweight title. Still, he foiled his chances to fight for a world title when he chose not to agree to WBC-ordered title eliminators against Luis Ortiz and Dominic Breazeale.

Whyte finally did eventually fight in a WBC eliminator against Oscar Rivas in 2019, which he won. Still, he could have been the mandatory long before that if he’d agreed to fight Ortiz or Breazeale.

Fury is expected to take on IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua next in July in the first of two fights.

The first match will have all four titles on the line, with the winner to be briefly the undisputed champ before the titles start being stripped away one by one.