By Charles Brun: WBC interim heavyweight champion Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte reportedly won’t be attending today’s kickoff press conference in London, England to promote his April 23rd title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Tyson ‘The Gypsy King’ Fury at Wembley Stadium in London.
(Courtesy: Queensberry Promotions)
With Whyte choosing not to attend today’s press conference, Fury will do the speaking about his fight, and he’ll likely do a great job as always.
Interestingly, no reason was given for why WBC mandatory challenger Dillian (28-2, 19 KOs) won’t be attending today’s press conference to promote his fight against Fury.
Whyte will reportedly remain in his training camp in Portugal to prepare for his April 23rd fight against the 6’9″ Fury. For Dillian to have any chance of winning, he’s got to get in the best shape possible, and even then, it’s going to take a miracle for him to win.
Fury to promote fight today
Dillian has not shown the type of talent during his career that suggests that he can beat a talent like Fury or even be competitive for that matter.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the 34-year-old Whyte to fight for a world title, and he’s going to spoil it by not attending today’s press conference. In the end, it’s Whyte will lose out because he won’t have the opportunity to win over new boxing fans.
Some boxing fans believe Whyte is unhappy with the purse split for the contest, so he won’t take part in promoting the fight. It probably won’t matter because the fans that know of Whyte, will be energized just the same to watch the fight live on April 23rd regardless.
A week ago, Whyte signed his contract for the Fury fight on the deadline. Had Whyte not signed, he would have lost out on the contest, and Team Fury would have moved on to face a backup opponent for the April 23rd date.
Dillian will be coming off of a thirteen-month layoff since his victory over 41-year-old Alexander Povetkin in their rematch last March in Gibraltar.
Povetkin had knocked Whyte out in their previous fight in August 2020, stopping him in the fifth round. Later in the year, Povetkin came down with a bad case of COVID-19 and had a difficult time with it.
When Povetkin did return to the ring for the rematch with Whyte in March 2021, he looked physically nowhere near what he’d been in their first fight in 2020, and he was easily stopped by Dillian.
Whyte a dangerous fight for Tyson
“I’m about to go off social media completely for the next eight and a half weeks,” Fury said. “Going to go into training camp to give Dillian Whyte all the respect in the world that he needs.”
“If someone did the contract properly as they should be, then he’ll be turning up at every press conference,” Tony Bellew said to iFL TV on Dillian Whyte. “He’ll be turning up at every media thing to promote the fight.
“That’s if the correct contract has been put in place, so expect to see Dillian Whyte. I remember signing contracts for big fights, real big fights, and believe you me, I was told when I could sit down, when I was allowed to talk.
“I didn’t do a single thing they told me, but he did try and dictate when I was going to speak, when I going to sit down and where I was going to be.
“It’s a brilliant fight. Dillian Whyte is a problem for anyone. He’s a problem because he’s big, he’s brave and he’s powerful. Lesser fighters have had Tyson Fury in a lot more danger.
“Lesser fighters than Dillian Whyte. Let’s just be totally honest here. We’ve had cruiserweight [Steve Cunningham] put him flat on his back. So would it be a shock to see Dillian Whyte put Tyson Fury on his back?
“It would be a hell of a shock if he keeps him on his back, but nobody in the world is having an easy night with Dillian Whyte, purely because of the attributes I just laid out to you,” said Bellew.
“His size, his strength, his braveness, and his durability,” Tony said about what makes Whyte a threat to Fury. “I’ve seen him knocked out clean off one shot that would have knocked a horse out.
“That left uppercut hook that Povetkin landed on his jaw, that’s a once in a career type of punch. That’s a fairytale punch. You’ve never seen Povetkin do that to anyone else before or after and just wipe them out.
“That’s a punch where you’ve been down twice, you’re out and you close your eyes and some magic appears. That’s like Harry Potter..
“It is and I understand why he didn’t do it,” said Bellew on Whyte choosing to pull out of his October tune-up fight against Otto Wallin.
“I think he absolutely destroys Otto Wallin and based on Otto Wallin’s last performance [win over journeyman Kamil Sokolowski on February 5th], I’m absolutely spot-on correct.
“I understand why Johnny Fischer wanted to step in [as the replacement opponent for Wallin to fight after Whyte pulled out of their October fight].
“Just because Wallin did better than anticipated against Tyson Fury doesn’t mean they’re great all of a sudden. So don’t read too much into Otto Wallin. Yes, I would have liked to have seen Dillian stay busy and stay active,” said Bellew.
Dillian has a lot of ringwear
“In the grand scheme of things, he’s [Whyte] probably been the most active heavyweight in the top heavyweights in the last few years.
“Inactivity only plays a part when it’s over two years or eighteen months. That’s when it starts to play a problem, but Dillian has been constantly in camp, constantly in Portugal, and he’s always training now.
“[As far as] Wear & tear, Tyson Fury had some really hard fights earlier in his career in the likes of the John McDermott first fight, and you have the up and down war with Steve Cunningham.
“Tyson Fury has more wear & tear with his body with his lifestyle. . The ballooning up and down [in weight]. Dillian Whyte has had to climb off the floor numerous times, and he’s been in many hard fights.
“In the ring, I’d say Dillian Whyte has taken more punishment, but away from boxing, which I think is the most important factor in boxing, Tyson has done a whole heap of damage. That isn’t easy to make back,” said Bellew.
