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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Ben Davies

Dillian Whyte ready to sign Tyson Fury fight contract ahead of April bout

Dillian Whyte is now ready to sign the contract to face heavyweight rival Tyson Fury in a title challenge this year.

The 'Body Snatcher' has been largely silent since Frank Warren won purse bids to stage the title clash with Fury after submitting a bumper £31million offer.

Whyte has been unhappy at the financial structure of the deal after the WBC declared Fury would receive a split of 80 percent for the mandatory defence.

However according to promoter Hearn, the contract is currently being reviewed by Whyte's legal team after being received at the weekend with the fight close to becoming a formality.

“At the weekend, yeah," Hearn told talkSPORT when asked if the contract had now been received.

Dillian Whyte is ready to face Tyson Fury for the WBC heavyweight title (Mark Robinson Matchroom Boxing)

“So it’s being reviewed now by Dillian’s lawyers. I’ve got a meeting with him tomorrow. In purse bids, it’s a simple bout agreement, so it depends what comes with the contract that’s been sent.

“I don’t envisage many problems. “I’ve got no involvement. I lost the purse bids. I work fight-by-fight with Dillian, he’s a close friend of mine.

“I guess [my involvement is] whatever he wants me to do in the fight. We talk to his team virtually every day, we have done for the entire last two months. But Frank won’t really want me involved in the promotion which is no problem, I’ve got enough on my plate if they don’t want me to help in the promotion.

“So I’ll sit down with Dillian and say, ‘What do you want me to do?’ We’ve got a lot of fights going on, but I’ll always back him and I want him to win the fight. We’ll just chat and say, ‘This is our involvement.'”

Whyte is locked in arbitration with the organisation over the purse split which initially prevented purse bids from taking place.

Do you think Dillian Whyte can defeat Tyson Fury? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below

This opened the door for negotiations in the direction of Whyte and Joshua stepping aside to allow Fury to pursue an undisputed clash against Oleksandr Usyk, but talks quickly collapsed.

Whyte promptly discovered he would be fighting on a show staged by Fury's co-promoter Warren after Hearn's bid was trumped.

The interim champion will r eportedly earn a guaranteed £6 million with the potential to earn up to £10 million by earning another ten percent if he can secure victory.

He has been waiting for the shot since 2017 when he first became interim champion and has not fought since rematch victory over Alexander Povetkin last March.

Fury's co-promoter Bob Arum believes his charge's rival could provide a more stern test than Deontay Wilder did during their recent trilogy.

"Whyte has a great chance because he's a big, big puncher," Arum told iFL TV.

"He's a very rugged heavyweight, a very experienced heavyweight. If anything, he poses a bigger danger to Tyson than even Deontay Wilder did."

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