By: Sean Crose
Give heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte this – he’s determined not to let WBC and lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury get inside his head before the two men meet on April 23’d. What other reason, one might wonder, could there have possibly been for Whyte to have avoided Tuesday’s press conference for the the heavyweight title matchup? Unless, of course, the 28-2 Whyte is upset over the contract for next month’s fight. “Now he’s trying to renegotiate,” Fury promoter Frank Warren told the gathered media. “That’s why we had a period to agree terms! That’s where we’ve got to. One of the things was he wanted a private jet to fly him in and out today. But we said yesterday we’d do that. Then they started adding other stuff to it.”
Warren even said Whyte didn’t want his face on the fight poster. Yet Fury, being Fury, still ended up eating all the energy in the room, as is his tendency. “I’m not concerned,” said the defending champion. “This is the Tyson Fury Roadshow. The next stop is London. It’s never about the opponent. Whether it’s his face on there (the fight poster) or somebody else’s, it really isn’t important. ” Walking over to a likeness of Whyte on the stage, the fighter known as “The Gypsy King” took the opportunity to send a shot the challenger’s way. ” It’s ugly, anyway,” he said of Whyte’s likeness, “we should take it down.”
But the towering Englishman wasn’t done. “This is about this man over here,” he said, indicating his own likeness on the stage, “and celebrating his legacy and his boxing career, and celebrating on the biggest stage the world can get, really. It doesn’t matter if it’s Dillian Whyte, Joe Joyce, Derek Chisora, Anthony Joshua, Usyk, it doesn’t really matter. Wherever it will stop next, it’s always going to be the Tyson Fury Roadshow.”
Fury went on to indicate that he’s as confident as he is self-aware. “I’m very confident,” he said. “Very over-confident. People say, ‘Oh, he’s a down to Earth fella.’ I’m not a down to Earth fella. I’m an on top of the world fella. I’m an all or nothing type of guy. If I’m training for a fight, I believe I’m going to win it one billion percent.” Sure enough, Fury claimed he’s certain he’s going wreck havoc on Whyte when they meet this spring in London.
“There’s not even one percent doubt I’m not going to annihilate Dillian Whyte,” he claimed. “Even when I’ve been a heavy underdog, I’ve never had a doubt I’m losing. That’s my biggest asset, confidence. At this, the latter end of my career, long in the tooth as I am, I’m nearly 34 years old, I would never, never let that go away from me. I have to be supremely confident in my own ability, which I am. I believe I can beat Dillian Whyte with one hand tied behind my back and one foot off the floor.”