By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says the Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte promotion isn’t going well at the moment for their April 23rd fight with neither fighter speaking to the media.
Whyte has NO obligations to help promote the fight is what Hearn is saying, and that doesn’t sound good at all.
Hearn notes that WBC heavyweight champion Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) went on media blackout this week, saying he won’t be available to take until May.
Fury might need to reconsider his idea of going on a media blackout because he’s the only hope to promote this fight, and it’s not going to be enough for him to only speak during press conferences.
As for Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs), Hearn says he’s busy training in Portugal, and he’s not going to take time away from his important preparation to promote the April 23rd fight.
What this means is that there won’t be anything heard from either fighter until the press conferences.
Hearn: Whyte has no obligations vs. Fury
“He doesn’t have obligations to be here, there or anywhere,” said Hearn to Secondsout.
“All he has obligations to do is turn up and fight and that’s all he’s training on. I’m sure he’ll be at the press conferences when the time is right.”
It’s unclear whether Whyte will choose to speak. He might stay silent and be present at the press conferences in body only.
If Whyte isn’t going to speak, it’s going to be a real negative. You can only imagine what it’ll do for the remainder of Whyte’s career.
Will rival promoters want to set up fights with Whyte if they have concerns about whether he’ll help promote the fights or if he’s going to pull out as he did for the Otto Wallin fight?
That would be pure poison for the promotion for the event because Fury doesn’t have enough material to entertain the fans and get them excited about a fight that lacks energy.
It’s bad enough that Whyte isn’t well known with U.S boxing fans, and is viewed as having virtually no chance of winning.
Whyte’s recent knockout loss to 40-year-old Alexander Povetkin is the image many boxing fans still have about him.
They don’t give him credit for avenging the loss due to Povetkin having only recently recovered from COVID 19 when they fought their rematch last year.
Fury-Whyte not promoting their fight
“The reaction is that people said he wouldn’t sign the contract, and he signed the contract,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV on Dillian Whyte. “He’s working hard, he’s training.
It’s not going really well at the moment. You’ve got one bloke [Fury] on a media blackout, and another [Whyte] not saying anything,” said Hearn about Fury and Whyte not promoting their April 23 fight.
“So hopefully, we can get a little bit more going closer to the fight, but it’s a big fight for both. We’ve had fights with Dillian before where he had to do certain things that he hasn’t done because it affects his preparation. You have to respect that among fighters.
“His preparation for this fight obviously has got to be bang on, and he’s not obligated to do certain things. So he’s going to do what he needs to do to win this fight,” said Hearn.
Hearn said Dillian was always going to sign
“I don’t think he thinks like that. He just laughed at everybody suggesting that he wouldn’t fight Tyson Fury,” said Hearn about Dillian.
“There are still issues that have to be sorted out that have been made public, but at the same time, he’s ready to go. It’s not just a case of him not signing the contract and wanting extra money for the press conferences.
“No, it’s a very different situation for a purse bid to a normal commercial deal. He’s going to be there on fight-night, and he’s not going to play to everybody else’s tune.
“He’ll probably play his mind games as well, but he’s there to win a heavyweight world championship. He’ll be training hard in Portugal, and he’ll be preparing like a true professional,” said Hearn about Whyte.
Hearn saying that Whyte isn’t going to “play to everybody else’s tune” sounds like he’s pleased that he’s not speaking to the media for the biggest fight of his career.
That sounds crazy because this might be it for Whyte. If he gets beaten badly by Fury, who is going to want to fight him?
Hearn can obviously match Whyte against Dereck Chisora and maybe even Anthony Joshua after he loses to Oleksandr Usyk again, but he’ll be viewed as a faded domestic level fighter at that point.
Fury won’t fight Whyte again after he beats him, and Usyk isn’t going to waste time giving him a title shot after he beats Joshua.
