Fury has spotlight to himself because Whyte blows off kickoff news conference
Heavyweight champion happy to be fighting at home in England after 4 years away; claims he will retire after fight
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When heavyweight champion Tyson Fury’s third fight with Deontay Wilder was announced, Wilder spoke a couple of cliché sentences and then refused to speak for the remainder of the news conference. Instead, Wilder sat and played with his smart phone while trainer Malik Scott did the talking. But at least Wilder was there.
Now set to promote his next fight, Fury was on hand on Monday for the kickoff news conference at Wembley Stadium in London, where he will face WBC interim titleholder and mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte on April 23 (ESPN PPV in U.S., BT Sport in U.K.).
The larger-than-life Fury sure had a lot to say, but what of his British countryman Whyte? He did not bother to show up because he is still upset about the fact that he is getting 20 percent of the record-purse bid offered by Fury co-promoter Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions. He also had a contract signing drama and waited until just before the deadline to sign.
Because he is ticked off about the deal — which he could have negotiated rather than force it to a purse bid — Whyte has refused to participate in the promotion other than probably showing up for the fight week news conference while also asking for greater compensation.
“He should be here promoting the fight,” said Fury, who was flanked on the dais by Warren and Brad Jacobs, the COO of Fury co-promoter Top Rank. “That's my opinion and I think it's tough luck for him and his family and his legacy going forward.”
Fury added, “I don’t blame him for not being here today because if he were here, I’d have probably stretched him at the press conference. It’s good he’s not here otherwise I’d be remanded in a London jail cell somewhere. The buildup to this fight will be fantastic because Tyson Fury versus his own shadow sells for sure. I will make sure people are entertained.”
Fury also said, though few will believe him, that he is going to retire after the fight.
“This is the final fight of my career,” he said. “I'm retiring after this. $150 million in the bank, healthy, young. I’m gonna buy a massive yacht abroad. I'm retiring, I'm out, this is my final fight, I'm done.”
Warren said the stadium will be set for a little less than 100,000 and that that because the fight looms as the biggest all-British heavyweight showdown since Lennox Lewis defended the WBC title against Frank Bruno at National Stadium in Cardiff, Wales in 1993, he expects a capacity crowd.
“I am not concerned about Dillian not being here because this is the Tyson Fury road show.” — Tyson Fury
Still, Warren was clearly miffed that Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs), 34, did not show up.
“One of the things was he wanted a private jet to fly him in and out today but we said we’d do that in writing,” Warren said. “Then they tried to add other stuff to it and didn’t even want to let us use his photograph on the poster. I’ve never heard of anything like it in my life. He is getting eight times more than Tyson got to fight (Wladimir) Klitschko (for the title in 2015), more than (Anthony) Joshua got to fight (Charles) Martin and more than (Oleksandr) Usyk got to fight Joshua.
“Champions bank on themselves to win, that’s what they do to become the king. If you win the title you get the money. We are where we are, but Dillian Whyte is in Portugal (where he trains and has become a resident) and he should be here and it is disgraceful that he is not here. It’s disgraceful. It is not professional and if somebody else had won the purse bid we would have helped to make that work. It is madness.”
Jacobs agreed.
“It is unprofessional that he is not here today but we will get past that and move on,” Jacobs said. “Everyone is second best to Tyson, in the ring, in personality, in everything.”
Warren, in conjunction with Top Rank, won the promotional rights to the bout on Jan. 28 with a record-breaking purse bid of $41,025,000 to beat the only other offer — the second-biggest ever made at a purse bid — of $32,222,222 submitted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, Whyte’s longtime promoter.
Ten percent of the bid ($4,102,500) went to the WBC to hold as a bonus for the winner of the fight. Of the remaining 90 percent, Fury is entitled to 80 percent — $29,538,000 — although it is likely he had a pre-arranged deal with his promoters for a guarantee less than that so they could bid a high enough amount to make sure Whyte would take the fight. Whyte is due 20 percent, a career-high (by millions) $7,384,500.
The fight will mark Fury’s first fight at home in England since 2018. His past five bouts have been in the United States, four in Las Vegas and one in Los Angeles.
Fury (30-0-1, 22 KOs), 33, who will be making the eighth defense of the lineal championship and the second defense of the WBC belt, is coming off an 11th-round knockout of Wilder in October in the 2021 fight of the year. He is happy to be fighting at home again.
“It has been an absolute roller coaster of a ride,” Fury said. “I’ve been across the Atlantic fighting at exotic venues and now I feel like the song by Thin Lizzy — ‘The boys are back in Town.’ After four years away I get to come back on the world’s biggest stage at Wembley Stadium.
“I am putting on for those who traveled out to Las Vegas and the fans who stayed up until 5 a.m. to watch on BT Sport. Now they can come and watch on home soil and be a part of history. People will be talking about this event, saying, ‘Where were you when this happened on that night of 23 April 2022’ in years to come, when Tyson Fury smashed this fella to pieces in front of home fans in the U.K.’
“It will be a fantastic event and I know Dillian Whyte is going to come in prepared. He will be rugged, rough, game and aggressive. Both fighters are going for the knockout in this fight and when I land the ‘Lancaster Bomber’ on his jaw it is going to be over. I am looking to put on an excellent showcase of knockout boxing in front of the U.K. fans and then sing a load of songs afterwards!
“I am not concerned about Dillian not being here because this is the Tyson Fury road show.”
Photos: Queensberry Promotions
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I'm always amazed when journalists and fans unquestioningly take the word of sanctioning body presidents and promoters - people who lie every day of their lives without batting an eyelid.
I'm not a fan of Whyte but I have to say that I don't think he's completely to blame for the problems in making the Fury fight.
When it comes to the details of the original Whyte negotiations I'm wary of believing Arum and Warren as they're hardly the bastions of truth and they're biased.
Clearly Whyte is no angel either and is equally biased and so it seems to me that it's more likely that there was fault on both sides in the negotiations - Whyte being clearly wound up by how he feels he's been treated by the WBC over the past four years.
The WBC's decision on the split must also have annoyed Whyte and I can understand why.
Section 2.16 of the WBC's so-called rules show that the split should have been 70:30 not the 80:20 that the WBC decided on - this is because their rules are a sham and they can do what the hell they like, whenever they like, and for whatever reason they choose.
The reason they gave (one of a few) about comparing both fighters' last 3 purses does not stand up to scrutiny as it's totally biased towards Fury.
Fury has just had 3 world title fights in the US while Whyte's last two fights were during lockdowns, one in front of no crowd in the Matchroom garden and the other in front of a small crowd in Gibraltar - both situations limited Whyte's purse a great deal. The other fight was a hastily arranged fight in Saudi on the undercard of Ruiz vs Joshua 2 not long after Whyte was (rightly) cleared to fight again by the WBC following his problem with UKAD.
Some may feel like Whyte is being childish but it must be said that he did not automatically refuse to attend the press conference yesterday, apparently there was a simple disagreement with Warren about something to do with the private jet.
Do we believe Frank Warren that the problem was all because of Whyte?
Once again, I'm wary about totally believing Frank Warren about anything. I don't necessarily believe Whyte either as he's just as biased as Warren. In such situations I don't see how anyone can choose to believe one side or the other - again I choose to believe there was fault on both sides.
There's now a toxic relationship between Whyte and Sulaiman/ Arum / Warren which doesn't seem fixable - this probably means that there will be more problems ahead. IMO each of Sulaiman, Arum, Warren and Whyte have to take their fair share of the blame for that.
The fight game gets stranger by the day, the higher the rankings the less I want to watch it or hear about it anymore. Between PPVs and odd ball news I have found myself watching guys fight that are working there way up the rankings once they make it or make there deals it starts getting old n weak. And if it is handed to them early well it just happens sooner.