Eddie Hearn lost confidence in Dillian Whyte 's chances of beating Tyson Fury when he noted his demeanour at the pre-fight press conference.
Fury retained his heavyweight world titles last weekend by knocking out Whyte in front of 94,000 fans at Wembley with a brutal uppercut in the sixth round. Fury was in control of the fight for the first five rounds, despite one judge scoring two rounds in Whyte's favour.
Hearn, who has previously promoted Whyte, wasn't involved in the fight as Frank Warren and Bob Arum outbid him by £7million to host the title showdown. The Matchroom Boxing boss said he didn't like Whyte being friendly with Fury before the fight and thinks it worked in Fury's favour.
"If I'm being honest, I didn't like what I was seeing at the press conference and at the weigh-in," he said. "I feel like Tyson did a good job to befriend him at those events when we will know Dillian's greatest asset is his ruggedness and his ability to put fear into people.
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"I actually think you saw Tyson fight with that fear in the fight. Let's be honest, it was a poor fight. Tyson did exactly what he needed to do to win the fight. He's very clever at doing that, which was negate the work of Dillian, hold him walk him back to the ropes and box him from the outside.
"For me, Dillian was too passive in the early stages of that fight. It was all too 'friendly friendly', there was a few elbows going in as the fight warmed up. Dillian will feel like he just made a mistake at that moment, but this wasn't a mistake like the [Alexander] Povetkin mistake, he was getting outboxed."
Whyte has claimed Fury's fight-winning punch was followed by an " illegal " push which ended the show. He admitted he was "buzzed" when the uppercut landed but his consciousness was worsened after smacking his head on the canvas following the shove.
'The Bodysnatcher' was fighting for the first time in over a year and Hearn thinks his inactivity had a big part to play in his loss, adding: "I think inactivity played a massive part as well. Dillian's boxed six rounds in two years, something like that. It's very difficult to go in with inactivity and beat a great fighter like Tyson Fury."
