Whyte on the money DILLIAN WON’T BACK OFF FROM SHOWDOWN WITH FURY
DILLIAN WHYTE is adamant that no amount of money could persuade him to stand aside next year and wave through a Battle of Britain between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight champ Joshua has agreed a deal in principle to fight WBC king Fury as long as both still hold their titles.
But Joshua is due to meet Kubrat Pulev first, Fury has his trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder later this year and Whyte – the WBC’s mandatory challenger – has been told by the governing body that he will get his shot at the belt next February.
Assuming Joshua and Fury are both still world champions in 2021, the latter may want to offer Whyte step-aside money so the unification bout can take place.
But Whyte, 32, says he has waited too long for his shot after being reinstated as mandatory challenger after a doping violation charge was dropped in April 2019.
The Brixton fighter said:
“No amount of money would make me consider that. I have waited long enough and I am not getting any younger.
“I don’t just want to be the world champion, I want to be world champion and reign and be unified.
“So the sooner I win the world title, the sooner I can set about doing that. “I don’t want to be one of those world champions like Charles Martin, who wins the world title and loses his next fight.
“So I’m not looking to step aside at all.” Whyte, who faces Russian Alexander Povetkin, 40, in Eddie Hearn’s back garden in August, lost to Joshua in December 2015. But he wobbled the future champion with one big shot and is confident he would finish the job next time, and that he’d have the measure of his old sparring partner Fury, too.
Whyte added: “All these fights I’ve had, there have been ups and downs and problems.
“The fights I’ve had with no issues, proper training camps, I’ve put these guys to sleep. Badly, as well.
“So with the right camp and no injuries or anything like that, I can do it.
“With the Joshua fight, I knew what injuries I had and I knew what problems I had.
“I knew what punch I needed to land and I said, ‘I will land that punch.’
“Unfortunately, when I landed it I shattered my shoulder, which everyone knows now.
“If I fight him again with a good training camp then I will stop him.
“As was shown in the Andy Ruiz fight, if you hit him and you are relentless he gets stopped.”