Dillian Whyte has declared he is "ready" for his world title fight with Tyson Fury after breaking his silence for the first time in 15 weeks.
The mandatory title challenge will get his shot at the world heavyweight championship after years of waiting on April 23, but has opted to engage in no promotion for the bout. Despite his refusal to push the fight, the 94,000 tickets available at Wembley Stadium have sold out, with Fury fronting the pre-fight media duties.
But now Whyte has taken to social media to let fans know he is still preparing for the event, which will be Fury's second title defence since winning the WBC belt in 2020. He posted an Instagram video showing his intensive cardio training, which was a promotional piece for sponsors Vow Nutrition.
He said: "I’m ready. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone on the 23rd of April at Wembley Stadium. #LetsGooo." Whyte's pre-fight messaging has been mostly done through lawyers, where he has threatened a number of actions against promoter Frank Warren who won the purse bid for the bout with a world record £31million offer.
Of that money, Fury will earn £25m while Whyte will take home £6m as per the 80/20 split ordered by the WBC earlier this year. There will also be a portion given to the winner of the fight in a unique deal orchestrated by the governing body. Warren's bid was in association with Top Rank Boxing, Fury's American promotion.
There have been a number of threats from Whyte's side regarding pulling out of the fight, with his team unhappy over a number of parts of the fight's organisation. His lawyer Jeffrey Benz has accused Fury's team of playing "silly games" before threatening to pull the fight completely.
"Dillian is focused on fighting, he’s straightforward in that regard, he’s assuming the fight will go forward, but you never what will happen with this opponent at the last minute," he told talkSPORT. "But Dillian is doing his thing. It’ll be an exciting fight, if it goes forward – probably the fight of the decade. You just don’t know [if the fight will go ahead].
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“We haven’t spoken to Frank [Warren] or George [Warren] for a month. I had a total of a three-minute conversation with Frank, he called me. Everything we’ve asked for is normal, standard, commercial; it’s not outlandish or outrageous. "It's like nothing I’ve ever seen. We don’t have a single ticket for Dillian, his entourage, his mum or anybody else.
"Contrary to what Warren said, we didn’t ask for complimentary tickets equal to the total number of ringside seats; we asked for 25 ringside seats. It’s normal, it’s what we give to Dillian’s opponents. We have been given nothing.
"We’ve asked for credentials for his security team and video team. They’ve given us the bare minimum. We spent weeks asking them to tell us the size of the ring. Imagine if Crystal Palace travel to Chelsea and they don’t know the size of the pitch?"
