DILLIAN WHYTE
The heavyweight contender sits down with David Wainwright and explains why he had to change
We visit the in-form Londoner at his training base in Loughborough
DILLIAN WHYTE is new and improved, we’re told. The bad-tempered loss to Anthony Joshua three years ago triggered the transformation, he says. Subsequent big-time showings against Dereck Chisora and Robert Helenius exhibited some improvement – indeed, WBC champion Deontay Wilder didn’t seem keen to take on the Londoner – but also, if we’re honest, highlighted plenty of the old flaws remained. His most recent effort, however, showed the faith he’s always had in himself is justified, that the hard work he’s been putting in behind the scenes is really bearing fruit. That March shellacking of previously unbeaten Lucas Browne, which left the Aussie out cold, confirmed Whyte is, at the very least, a top contender in a burgeoning heavyweight division.
This weekend, when he takes on former WBO champion Joseph Parker at the O2, Whyte can go higher than ever before. Victory over his most accomplished rival (Joshua withstanding) could see a rematch with “AJ” become more than just an excuse to rehash an old grudge for the sake of another pay-per-view, it could become – if Whyte looks as impressive as he promises to – a necessity. Today, as Boxing News catches up with Whyte at his Loughborough training base, the glorious sun beats down on the heart of Midlands and enriches the golden outlook. This university town – where he is putting plans in place to teach kids to box for as little as £1-a-class – has been his on-and-off home for the past two years, and where, Monday to Friday, he moves away from his family and dedicates himself to ruling the boxing world. A lot has changed for you since the Joshua loss. Why Loughborough?
I came to Loughborough University and they’ve completely took over my whole training and fitness regime. They’ve changed the way I train, the way I do my cardio, the way I do my weights, the way I move around the ring, so everything has changed. I’m much improved, much stronger, fitter and there’s so much more room for improvements as well. After the Joshua loss my shoulder was quite bad. I wasn’t sure if I’d box again as I’d dislocated and shattered it during the
fight and carried on fighting which made it worse, I’d torn the ligaments and other stuff. We looked around and heard about the physio team here. We thought about it and decided this might be the place. My guys spoke to the people at the university and the conversations went from there. They did an assessment, where they told me the areas I was weak in and said to me ‘I’m surprised the way you are physically that you were in there competing with an elite level athlete like Anthony Joshua’.
Why did you go ahead with the Joshua fight if you were not fit?
We thought that we were ready, hindsight is a good thing. I thought I had enough to get the job done and I almost did. What I thought was going to happen, happened, but my shoulder just dislocated and shattered in the joint. That’s fighting, I’m a fighter and I believe in taking chances. I knew what I had to do and I did it with the injuries I had. But he recovered better than I thought he would, as he was in much better physical shape than me. I don’t wish I’d postponed the fight, that loss put me where I am now. After that loss I realised that I needed to take my career seriously, train harder, hire professional people around me to get me in
shape and look after all my injuries. That’s what I’ve done, sometimes you need a rude awakening and that was mine. It was the same way when I beat him in the amateurs, that was his, he went to Sheffield and changed his game. Then he beat me in the pros, I went to Loughborough and changed mine. Had I beaten him I’d probably still be training in London thinking I was good enough and I was in a good place. I’d have probably come up short against my next opponent.
The grudge between you and Joshua seems to have eased. Why?
No, it hasn’t eased off. We’re a lot smarter, a lot more educated and a lot more experienced. The first time we fought we had to scream and shout about it, but now we’ve fought twice we’re forever linked together. We don’t need to shout and scream anymore. We’re only one or two fights away from making the rematch, which could be made next year. There is mutual respect between us, we fought each other twice and it was war. We’re both doing well and flying the British flag so you have to respect a man for what he’s doing, but trust me, we don’t like each other. If we were meant to fight tomorrow the respect would go out the window.
How frustrating was the failure to make Deontay Wilder fight after you became his mandatory?
It was frustrating because I did what I had to do, had the fights I had to have, paid all of the sanctioning fees [to the WBC], won all the titles and moved up the rankings in the way we thought was the right thing to do. Then the fight didn’t happen, it felt like it was a bit of a waste of time to be honest, but that’s boxing.
Right now I don’t wish to speak badly or disrespect any of the main sanctioning bodies, as I don’t know which one of them I’m going to fight for next. But I believe that the WBC Silver title is a sort of ‘interim’ title and I believe they should uphold the law and their rules. The WBC silver champion is the one next in line to fight the champion. I don’t know, it’s all a bit complicated and a bit murky with the belts and the sanctioning bodies so I’ll just crack on and leave them to it. There’s one rule for one and one rule for another, I’ve got to keep fighting and keep winning. I will get a title shot sooner or later anyway. They can’t deny me forever, can they?
Joshua’s talks with Wilder also broke down. What was behind that collapse, in your opinion?
The problems are egos: Joshua’s ego, Wilder’s ego. One believing he’s worth more than the other and the other believing he’s worth more than the other. I’ve got four belts to your one, so why should you? Who wants to walk to the ring first? Who wants to wear red shorts? Who wants to wear white shorts? It gets to a stalemate, at a point where they can’t agree the finer details. It’s easy for fans and people to say ‘This guys scared of that guy, that guys running from this guy’, there’s lot of little things people don’t know about.
Fans will always criticise. What do you say to those critics, those who don’t believe the Parker contest should be on Sky Sports Box Office, a pay-per-view platform?
People will complain about anything in life. That’s just life, you can’t please everyone. Why was him [Parker] and Joshua on PPV and me and him can’t be PPV? Okay, they had titles on the line but this fight is just as big as that without any titles, that makes it even better. You know it’s going to be a good fight, I won’t be fighting in the same way Joshua and he fought. I’ll be coming to fight, whenever I’m involved in a fight I come to fight. I felt his fight with Joshua was quite boring, even the build-up was dire, even though it was between two world champions. I’ve read there’s a lot of interest in our fight already.
The critics don’t bother me as I’m doing something positive. What are you [critics] doing? You’re probably a middle-aged man living at home with your mother and not doing anything positive to show kids that they can rise from nothing to something. That’s what I’m doing so it doesn’t bother me. I’ve got plans and options, so some idiot writing at home on the internet doesn’t change anything in my life.
A bigger concern must be the fight itself. What worries you the most about Joseph Parker?
It’s just another fight, I’m the underdog once again. It doesn’t bother me, it’s a hard fight. Parker presents certain dangers in that he’s tough, quick and young. He seems to have a good chin and he’s got good hand speed. There’s a concern with every fight I have because I’m a heavyweight and one punch can change everything. I believe I’ve fought better and more dangerous fighters than Parker already and I’ve come out on top.
Team Parker believe you have a problem with your temper.
It’s an opinion, they can believe whatever they want and that’s fine. I can say stuff about his coach and promoters who were the ones who said that. But it doesn’t matter as it’s only mind games. If that’s what they believe, that’s good, I’ve been fiery in the past but there’s been a reason, we’ll see.
The build-up to your last fight was fiery. Yet your performance was disciplined and clinical. After all the bad blood in the lead-up, was it a worry to see Lucas Browne unconscious at the end?
When he went down, I thought, ‘this fella has been badly hurt.’ He was down for a minute, he hadn’t moved and anything could happen. Everybody says they want to see you knock somebody out, but when they go down like he did I was concerned for his health and safety. Funnily enough we had a stipulation in the contract that Lucas wanted, that anybody leaving the venue without been drug-tested had to pay the other £15,000. He wanted it, not me, but he got knocked out and when they were taking him to the ambulance, his team were trying to drag him out of the ambulance to do the drug test so they didn’t have to pay the £15,000. I came out and told them to forget the £15,000! ‘I don’t care about it, let him keep his money, get him to hospital and get his health and safety checked.’ Fifteen-grand aint worth a person’s life.
There was a lot of love for the bald head last time. Was that a nod to Marvin Hagler?
[Laughs] No, you know what? I love change. I’ve had the mohawk for 15 years so I thought I’d try something different. I often shave my head bald in between fights, but it was the first time I’ve done it for a fight. We’ll see, I might bring the mohawk back, as you can see its back now, or I might shave it bald in a day. I don’t know yet, I’ll see how my mind feels and what zone I’m in before the fight. I usually grow my hair in camp, get a bit scruffy. I get a trim so I feel fresh before a fight.
Finally, what does the future hold for Dillian Whyte?
My short-term goal is to get in there and smash Parker to bits in good fashion. Hopefully stuff him. That’s it, the only goal on my mind right now is to get in there and absolutely destroy him. After that I’ll think about everything else, but nothing else matters unless I get the win on the night. There’s no point planning and strategising until I get the win, as I plan everything step by step and that’s the next step of my career.
THEY WERE TRYING TO GET BROWNE OUT OF THE AMBULANCE SO HE DIDN’T HAVE TO PAY THE £15,000. BUT FIFTEENGRAND AIN’T WORTH A PERSON’S LIFE”