Fury vs. Whyte U.S PPV price: $69.99 on April 23rd

By Boxing News - 04/12/2022 - Comments

By Charles Brun: U.S boxing fans will need to dig deep by coughing up $69.99 to watch Tyson Fury defend his WBC heavyweight title against Dillian Whyte on April 23rd on ESPN+ to watch these two get it on at the Wembley Stadium in London, England.

The price for the Fury-Whyte fight was announced earlier today, and fans have been less than pleased at the cost.

Given that Whyte isn’t helping with the promotion, it’s hard to view this as a PPV-worthy fight, especially when you recall that he was knocked out by 41-year-old Alexander Povetkin a couple of years ago.

American boxing fans wouldn’t mind paying that kind of money if Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) were facing someone that they were interested in seeing like Oleksander Usyk, Anthony Joshua, or Deontay Wilder, but NOT Dillian Whyte.

What makes things worse is Whyte hasn’t been helping promote the fight, so there’s been very little buzz about the contest. For a PPV fight, Fury vs. Whyte is invisible, and that’s not a good sign.

In hindsight, Fury would have been better off vacating his WBC title and focusing on fighting someone that U.S fans don’t mind paying to see him compete again.

As popular as Fury is now, he doesn’t need the WBC title to validate him in the eyes of fans. He could go back to calling himself the ‘lineal champion’ as he used, and that would be enough for U.S fans.

“It’s all very sad. We bid a lot of money for this fight, which puts a lot of money in Dillian’s pocket,” said Frank Warren to talkSPORT Boxing. “It’s a little over seven and a half million dollars guaranteed, and he gets a four million dollars should he win. He should be delighted.

Image: Fury vs. Whyte U.S PPV price: $69.99 on April 23rd

“I don’t know why we’re the enemy in this, and he’s got an upside of four should he win. It’s all very sad. It’s the biggest boxing event to ever take place in this country and the biggest gate of 94,000.

“At Wembley, it’s the biggest single-day event. This is mega-stuff, and I don’t know why he’s being a pain,” said Frank about Dillian.

“It seems like extraordinary sabotage,” said Gareth A. Davies. “We heard the altercation between yourself and Jeffrey Benz. Have their been attempts to bridge over the river since then?”

“Everything in that contract, we’ve adhered to. He hasn’t,” said Warren. “He’s asking for things that are not in the contract, and the way that he asked for them are quite antagonistic, it’s demanding.

“It’s like blackmail and it is. ‘If you don’t do this, we won’t show up at the press conference.’ It’s not acceptable and I’m not going to tolerate that anyway.

“He certainly picked on the wrong person there. The bottom line of all this is all we want is a successful event. All we want is Dillian Whyte to adhere to his contractual commitments.

“That’s all we want, nothing more nothing less, and he hasn’t done that as of yet. The officials were chosen by the WBC and the Boxing Board of Control.

“The contract states quite clearly that we go under the WBC’s rules and regulations and for them to appoint the officials, and not for me,” said Warren.

“It must be very frustrating,” said Davies. “I know you made the point that Dillian doesn’t have the legal obligations to do much, but I do think they’re feeling they’re getting really close to this fight,” said Davies to his host Adam Catterall.

“It’s an enormous fight. It has to be frustrating. Bob Arum has created in America the huge figure that Tyson Fury has become. He’s rejuvenated, born again Phoenix from the ashes after that first Wilder.

“His rise in the 12th round, and his standing and resonance with the American public and obviously with the British public as well. I think it’s going to be very difficult for Dillian Whyte.

“If Dillian wins, everyone will say he was a genius in what he did and his team did the right thing. Boxing is like that. The narrative changes with what happened.

“If Dillian doesn’t do well in the fight, and he gets schooled and knocked out by Tyson Fury, I think there will be little sympathy. I don’t care what people say.

“For someone who has covered boxing for a long time. I’m really disappointed not to see Dillian in the build-up. Not to see Dillian until whatever it’s going to be Wednesday of fight week. We will [see Whyte].

“He’ll be in town. He’s got to come over from Portugal. There’s no way he won’t come. He doesn’t [have to speak]. He can have masking tape all over his face. Again, that could happen.

“But for Dillian, it has to be frustrating because he’s not someone given to those kinds of silences. It’s shocking when the biggest attended British fight of all time at Wembley Stadium and we only got one guy [Fury] and a cardboard cutout of the other one [Whyte] so far.

“Dillian has got his reasons and his team have got their reasons, but it’s very frustrating all around,” said Davies.