Tyson Fury's promoter Frank Warren has sung a birthday message to Dillian Whyte with their heavyweight showdown just over a week away.
Fury will defend his WBC heavyweight title against Whyte in a huge all-British affair at Wembley Stadium in front of a record 94,000 crowd. Warren won purse bids to stage the event but has been embroiled in a feud with Whyte's team after he failed to show at a press conference to promote the fight.
He has now posted a surprise happy birthday message on the promotion's Twitter account, where he can be seen arm-in-arm with other office staff in the building. The team burst into a chorus of "Happy Birthday to Dillian" with a cheer, before Warren fired a warning to the heavyweight challenger : "Dillian I hope your training is going well, the man is waiting for you he is waiting for you. So you had better be in tip-top condition. See you next week."
Warren pointed to a poster of Fury behind him on the wall as the war-of-words took a bizarre turn between the pair's teams ahead of their heavyweight meeting. The Queensberry Promotions kingpin has been heavily involved in the negotiations, and exchanged fiery words of disagreement with Whyte's lawyer on talkSPORT.
He hit back at Jeffrey Benz's doubts that the fight would not go ahead over issues including tickets handed to the challenger, responding: "We couldn’t agree terms, we went to a purse bid. I don’t want to own him, I just want him to do what he’s signed for. He has refused to do any filming for BT. He said he didn’t show up because he didn’t get a private plane.
"We’re not obliged to do this. He wanted a choice of what plane to fly on and he didn’t want any strangers to film him. You signed a bout agreement. In that bout agreement, where does it say anything about escrow accounts, tickets or any of these things that you mentioned?
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“You’re a lawyer, where does it say anything in that contract you signed? Clause 11 of that contract says the boxers shall reasonably promote the bout. Dillian has not posted one thing about this fight. Not one. Is that not contractual obligation Jeff?”
Fury faced off with a fight poster of Whyte during a press conference to promote the event earlier this year before heading on to a social media blackout to focus on his preparations for the title defence. Whyte has been similarly silent during the build-up and has yet to issue any statement regarding the fight.
However Fury broke cover to post a video message to Whyte on social media last week, with a KO warning: "Hi guys its Tyson Fury here. Just a quick update camp is going very well with just three weeks out. I can't wait to see you all there in the big smoke at Wembley Stadium. Dillian Whyte is getting knocked the f*** out man. Will see you all there all my loyal fans, god bless you all."
