WORLD heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and challenger Dillian Whyte have finally faced off.
The two will box for Fury’s championship at London’s Wembley Stadium on Saturday. But the build up to their title fight has been fractious. Whyte declined to attend the initial press conference to announce the fight, nor did he appear at Monday’s public workout. But for the first time on Wednesday he went head-to-head with Fury.
The two fighters were calm and composed but surrounded by large entourages the rival camps exchanged heated words as they pressed closer and closer together. It was Fury himself who acted the peacemaker, talking down the people around them and instructing both sides to back up.
“Sometimes you have to be a bit diplomatic,” Fury smiled afterwards. “Both teams are up on the stage so it was up to me to calm it all down and sort it out. Both men are getting paid to do a fight so why do it for free a few days before?
“There’d be no point paying to see it with so many cameras up and down recording it, so let’s save it all for the night and not all end up in the police van on the way to the cells.”
It’s nearly a decade since the two were sparring partners. Now they will fight for the heavyweight title in front of an expected crowd of 94,000 at Wembley and on pay-per-view in the UK (on BT Sport) and the US (on ESPN).
“It was nice to see Dillian after so long. I believe the last time I saw him was in 2015 at the Klitschko fight and I haven’t seen him since then. So it’s been a long time. It’s been seven years since I’ve seen him so it’s good,” Fury said jovially. “We’re professional men. We’re both getting paid a fortune to do a fight, there’s nothing else to it. It speaks for itself. It’s the highest selling British fight in the history of our sport and that’s without him even turning up to a press conference to cause all this havoc, so called. So do we need all that ruckus? No we don’t. Has it sold already? Yes it has. And am I very happy and impressed and proud of what we’ve done? Very much so. To be a record breaker is fantastic, absolutely fantastic.”
Fury did not add to yesterday’s comments on Daniel Kinahan, but read more HERE.