Fury reacts to Frank Warren winning purse bid for Dillian Whyte fight

By Boxing News - 01/28/2022 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is over the moon in reveling at the news of his co-promoter Frank Warren winning Friday’s purse bid with a $41 million sum to stage his title defense against mandatory Dillian Whyte. The fight will be taking place in April at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

The fight will be shown on BT Sport PPV in the UK. Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing had the second-highest bid of $32 million.

The $41 million winning bid will be split up with Fury getting the lion’s share at $32.8M and Whyte $8.2M.

In the U.S, the Fury vs. Whyte fight is expected to be shown on ESPN. It’s unclear whether it will be shown on pay-per-view in the States. If so, it might not bring in more than a few buys from hardcore boxing fans. It’s hard to imagine paying to see Fury fight Whyte, as it’s not a great fight.

If one could erase the image of Whyte being knocked unconscious by 40-year-old Alexander Povetkin in 2020, paying to see Fury fight Dillian on PPV would be a someone palatable idea.

But given that Whyte has fought only once since his KO loss against a recently recovered COVID-19 version of Povetkin, it’s impossible to get excited about the Fury-Whyte fight.

Povetkin looked like a zombie when he entered the ring last March to face Whyte in the rematch after his recent bout with COVID. That flu drained Povetkin, leaving an empty shell that Whyte batted around the ring like a baseball.

Fury isn’t a PPV fighter in the U.S, and Whyte, of course, isn’t either. For Fury to sell in the U.S, he would need to be fighting Deontay Wilder or Anthony Joshua. Whyte isn’t a big enough name to sell fight on PPV in the States.

However, with Americans Gervonta Davis and Keith Thurman sticking their non-PPV-worthy fights on pay-per-view in the U.S, it’s quite possible that Fury vs. Whyte will wind up on PPV in the States.

Had Eddie Hearn won today’s purse bid, he also had plans of staging the fight in late April in the UK. As such, there’s no real chance with Warren winning the bid as opposed to Hearn.

It’ll be in the same month and general area of the world. Although Fury vs. Whyte is a big one for British fans, apparently it’s not big enough to attract attention from the Middle East to stage the fight over there.

If there were offers to place the fight in the Middle East, that’s where it would likely be heading.

Fury (31-0-1, 21 KOs) is calling his fight with the 34-year-old twice knocked out Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) as the biggest match in the UK since Lennox Lewis fought Frank Bruno in 1993.

Image: Fury reacts to Frank Warren winning purse bid for Dillian Whyte fight

I’m coming home baby. Get ready for the biggest British dust-up since Lennox Lewis vs Frank Bruno. History in the making,” said Fury about his fight with Whyte.

Lewis-Bruno was a big deal for British fans, but not for Americans, who’d already seen Bruno get sparked out by Mike Tyson, James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith, and Tim Witherspoon.

 

With all the bellyaching that Whyte has been doing in the last four years about not being given a world title shot, it’ll be good to see him finally stop squawking.

Whyte needs to make the most of his title shot because he may not get another chance. Next time, Whyte tries to become mandatory, he’ll have to face quality heavyweights to get to that position. He can’t count on earning a mandatory by beating non-relevant relics from a bygone era.