In the early days of his professional career, Dillian Whyte once had to borrow £500 from a friend just to pay his opponent.
Whyte - who challenges Tyson Fury for the WBC heavyweight title this Saturday - recalled the story from when he fought Tomas Mrazek in his 11th professional bout. Mrazek was stepping up on short notice to face 'The Bodysnatcher' and he needed to get some money together quickly.
The week before Whyte had just turned 10-0 having knocked out Ante Verunica at the Camden Centre. Back in the same venue sooner than expected, Whyte faced a quick turnaround against Mrazek and he turned to a friend to help pay the Czech boxer.
"I fought Tomas Mrazek, talking about low paydays, and I never had enough money to pay him," Whyte told BT Sport. "A friend of mine gave me £500 and I needed £300 for Tomas Mrazek. The fight was a hard fight, I hurt him to the body so I gave him an extra £100 to buy a bottle of whiskey.
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"I said 'bro, listen thank you very much for coming in and fighting me on short notice', paid him then I said 'get a bottle of whiskey to take the edge off'. I ended up with £100 after that, then I gave it to my son the next day."
Whyte is set to make the biggest purse of his career, £6million, when he walks out in front of 94,000 fans at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night. But long before 'The Bodysnatcher' headlined shows at the likes of The O2 arena, he fought at a number of small hall venues.
The 24-year-old made his professional debut at a sports centre in Gillingham and even fought at Bluewater shopping centre in his sixth professional fight. Whyte revealed that money was always a struggle during his early days as a professional.
"There were fights where I had to pay the opponent £1700. I had £1500 and I needed to find the other £200," Whyte added. "I was fighting at 9 o'clock and I was outside the venue at 8 o'clock, trying to sell the last few tickets. Trying to do a deal like, 'Oh, I'll give you three tickets for £60' trying to get the money to pay the guy!"
BT Sport Box Office will show Fury v Whyte exclusively live on Saturday from 6pm. For more information go to bt.com/sportboxoffice
