Dillian Whyte signs Tyson Fury contract to set up April heavyweight showdown

dillian whyte
dillian whyte

DILLIAN WHYTE will challenge Tyson Fury for the WBC heavyweight title on April 23 after he put pen to paper just hours before the contractual deadline came into force.

Should Fury emerge victorious, events could lead to an undisputed world title clash against the winner of Oleksandr Usyk’s rematch against Anthony Joshua for the WBA, IBF and WBO straps.

Whyte, 33, had until 06:00 GMT on Tuesday to sign but had spent the weekend and Monday negotiating details of the deal before finally inking the contract.


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“Dillian Whyte signed his contract for £6m, what a surprise,” Fury said on social media. “The man’s signed for the biggest payday he’s going to get in his life.”

Whyte, who holds the WBC interim title after a rematch win over Alexander Povetkin, is a 5/1 outsider to win the fight which is expected to be held at Wembley Stadium. Fury 33, who is now set to earn around £20m of the total purse is a 1/6 favourite to win. The draw is 25/1.

Fury has not fought in the UK since August 2018 when he beat Francesco Pianeta having fought exclusively in the US since signing a promotional deal with Bob Arum’s Top Rank.

 

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The undefeated 33-year-old confirmed that he would be taking a break from social media to focus on his preparations for the Whyte fight night.

“I’m about to go off social media completely for the next eight and a half weeks,” he said. “I’m going into training camp to give Dillian Whyte all the respect in the world he needs. I’ll never underestimate anyone in my life.

“Don’t phone me, call me, email me, text me or try to contact me in any way as I am out of bounds until May. I’ll be training away. Please respect my privacy and space. See you all at the press conference.”

Having lost to each fighter twice, Derek Chisora is a qualified assessor of the pair’s relative strengths, and thinks that challenger Whyte may just have the edge as he will “want it more”.

Chisora thinks that most boxers struggle to maintain their hunger after receiving the vast financial rewards that marquee fights bring.

“He [Dillian Whyte] wants it, he’s hungry,” Chisora told Behind the Gloves“The problem is when fighters make £20million, £30m or £40m – they’re not hungry anymore.

“There’s only one fighter who has ever been hungry when he’s made £100m and that’s Floyd Mayweather.

“When the rest of the fighters make all this money, they’re not hungry anymore, they just do it for the sake of doing it. But when someone who is hungry [and] wants it more, like Dillian right now, he’s going to come in and die in that ring that day.”

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