DILLIAN’S WHYTE FLAG
Fury blast after rival’s no-show
TYSON FURY cranked up the patriot games as his showdown with Dillian Whyte was confirmed for St George’s Day at Wembley – with a nod to old Ukrainian rivals who signed up to defy Russian invaders.
The Gypsy King’s WBC title date with Whyte on April 23 will be the first heavyweight battle of Britain for a major belt since Lennox Lewis stopped Frank Bruno in Cardiff 29 years ago.
With his usual cocktail of brash suit, bluster and bravado, Fury accused Whyte of running up the white flag after the Brixton ‘Body Snatcher’ failed to show for promoter Frank Warren’s set-piece announcement.
But the champion, preparing to fight on home soil for the first time in four years, used more conciliatory language to commend Klitschko brothers Vitali and Wladimir, two of his heavyweight contemporaries, and Anthony Joshua’s conqueror Oleksandr Usyk.
Despite making millions from their success in the ring, all three have refused to hide behind their wealth and stay out of the firing line in their mother country.
Vitali Klitschko, the former WBC and WBO champion, is the mayor of Kyiv and has remained in his capital city to face down Vladimir Putin’s forces.
Fury ended Wladimir’s 10-year reign as champion with a unanimous points decision to capture the IBF, WBA, WBO and IBO belts in boxing’s alphabet soup in Dusseldorf seven years ago, while he dismissed Usyk as a “pumped-up middleweight” last month.
But respect runs deep in the fight business, especially at the point of Russian missiles.
Deep in the bowels of Wembley stadium, where a record 92,000 sell-out awaits him next month, Fury said: “Fantastic – I would be the first one to join if England got involved, or America.
“I would be first in line for the job – my dad would as well and all the boys. We would all sign up to defend our country. I live by two rules: Love your woman and defend your country by fighting for it. Has it changed my opinion of them? No, not all. They are doing what they need to do.”
Whyte, 33, is Fury’s mandatory challenger for the WBC belt but is entitled to just 20 percent of Warren’s record £30million purse bid and is fuming. According to Warren, he was seeking to renegotiate his share of the loot before signing contracts just hours before last week’s deadline, and he rejected the offer of a private jet from his base in Portugal to promote the bout.
Fury said: “He’s getting the biggest payday of his life – 32 times bigger than he’s ever earned for a fight before. He should be here kissing my feet to show some gratitude.
“He’s definitely shown the white flag, in my estimation. He doesn’t want to go face to face with me because he’ll see that fire in my eyes and he’ll think, ‘I’m getting smashed to bits’.”