By Jim Calfa: Tyson Fury showed no concern today on his opponent Dillian Whyte choosing not to show up for their kickoff press conference in London, England.
(Courtesy: Queensberry Promotions)
Today was the beginning of the promotion for the highly anticipated April 23rd Fury-Whyte fight on PPV at Wembley Stadium.
Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs), who will be defending his WBC heavyweight title, made it clear that his opponent, Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs), was not needed because this is the “Tyson Fury roadshow.”
Later, Fury told his promoter Frank Warren that he wants Whyte’s face removed from the promotional poster for their April 23rd fight because he’s “ugly.”
It’s believed that Whyte is getting payback for not being given a more significant purse split for the fight, as he wanted a 55/45 split but instead was given 80/20.
Dillian will still get a massive $7.3 million purse with the chance to add another $4 million as part of the 10% bonus that goes to the winner of the contest.
With Dillian’s confidence going into the contest, it shouldn’t be any problem for him to walk away with a massive $11 million+ payday for the fight. That’s excellent money for a fighter that only needed to beat Oscar Rivas to earn the WBC mandatory spot.
The World Boxing Council didn’t make Whyte’s job arduous to earn the slot to face Fury by ordering a title eliminator between him and one of these heavyweights:
- Filip Hrgovic
- Joe Joyce
- Daniel Dubois
- Frank Sanchez
- Andy Ruiz Jr
It’s unclear whether Whyte could beat any of those heavyweights, so he’s pretty fortunate that the WBC ordered him to fight Rivas for their title eliminator back in 2019.
“I’m not concerned because this is the Tyson Fury roadshow, and the next stop is London, United Kingdom,” said Fury during Tuesday’s press conference in commenting on Whyte not attending.
If you thought @DillianWhyte missing today’s presser would stop @Tyson_Fury from having a face-off…
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) March 1, 2022
“It’s never about the opponent,” Fury continued. “Whether it’s his face on there or somebody else’s, it’s not really important. He’s ugly anyway. Take him down, Frank,” said Tyson in asking his promoter Frank Warren to remove Dillian’s photo from the promotional poster.
“This is about this man over here and celebrating his legacy and his boxing career and celebrating on the biggest stage the world can get, really,” said Fury.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s Dillian Whyte, Joe Joyce, Dereck Chisora, Anthony Joshua, Usyk; it doesn’t really matter. Wherever we stop at next, it’s always going to be the Tyson Fury roadshow.
“Like I said when I was fighting Klitschko. There’s only ever been one man on these shores ever, and he goes by the name of Tyson Fury. I’m the only man on these shores. I’m the only man that can deliver pull it out every single time when the pressure is on.
.@Tyson_Fury’s ‘face-off’ with @DillianWhyte today 😂#FuryWhyte | APRIL 23 | PPV pic.twitter.com/4T9l2wFIuV
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) March 1, 2022
“Even when I’m put down twice in the fourth round, I will get back up and knock a mother f**** out because that’s what I do,” said Fury.
It probably doesn’t matter if Whyte takes part in any press conferences for the fight. He’s not going to hurt the promotion in a significant way.
If anything, the one that will be hurt will be Whyte because he’ll miss out on a chance to show off his personality to boxing fans that haven’t seen him before and get familiar with him.
With that said, if Fury defeats Whyte soundly on April 23rd, it won’t matter anyway. Even if Whyte showed up for the press conferences, he wouldn’t be someone fans will care to see after this.
