As the publicity drive for his all-English St George’s Day world title fight against Dillian Whyte cranked into gear at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday – albeit without the involvement of his opponent – patriotism was uppermost in Tyson Fury’s mind.
Promising to win the fight “for England and Saint George”, Fury also said that should his own country ever be forced into armed conflict he would immediately come to its defence, as the Ukrainian boxers Oleksandr Usyk, Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, and Vasiliy Lomachenko have in volunteering this week for their nation’s army.
“I’ll be the first one to join up if England get involved, I’ll be first in line for the job,” Fury said. “My dad will as well, and all the boys. We’ll be signing up to defend. If you’re from a country, living there, defend her. Love your woman and defend your country, that’s what I say.”
Fury said the bravery being displayed by the Ukrainian boxers is nothing out of the ordinary: “Like I said, I live by two rules. One of them’s love your woman, the other one’s defend your country and fight for it. They’re doing what they need to do really.”
Frank Warren, whose Queensberry Promotions is putting on the fight between Fury and Whyte on 23 April, said: “Everybody should be absolutely pulling for Ukraine, standing up to the bully, standing up for democracy. Those four fighters, everybody should be behind them. It’s magnificent what they’re doing.”
Despite apparently demanding a private jet to bring him to London, Whyte decided not to break away from his training camp in Portugal to attend the press conference because of various grievances with Queensberry. His lawyer, Jeffrey Benz, raged that they were “dealing with dinosaurs” and that Queensberry “didn’t even give us notice of where and when this one‑sided shindig will occur”.
Queensberry countered that Whyte “seems to have a raft of excuses for not turning up, none of which hold water”, and Warren suggested it was a ploy to avoid interacting with Fury. “Tyson, he gets into his opponents’ heads and I think Whyte’s worried about that, that’s why he’s not here. It’s disgraceful, it’s not professional. This is madness.”
In Whyte’s absence Fury revelled in his ability to make the wildest possible predictions about the outcome of the fight without the inconvenience of anyone disagreeing with him. Having initially said Whyte was going to “come in rugged and rough and prepared and aggressive and who knows, it could be me chinned”, the 33-year-old grew increasingly bullish.
“If I can’t look like Muhammad Ali fighting this guy I’m in the wrong profession,” he said. “I’ll chop him to bits, no problem. You’re going to see a masterclass. The difference in levels, you’re going to see a Ferrari racing a Vauxhall Corsa. I could beat Dillian Whyte with one arm tied behind my back and one foot off the floor.”
The Brixton-born Whyte has spent several years demanding the chance to fight Fury, accusing his rival of “trying everything to avoid me”. In 2019 Whyte said: “He’s not a fighting man as he claims, but a running man. He’s not the Gypsy King, he’s the Gypsy coward.”
Having now scheduled the fight – with the purse split 80/20 in Fury’s favour, giving him £22m, the challenger £6.1m and a further £3m to the victor – Fury was not going to waste the opportunity to flip those particular claims. “He’s been saying everyone’s been avoiding him, running away. I’d have thought he’d have come here, because it’s his moment in the sun. He should be here today kissing my feet, because I’m giving him the biggest payday he’ll get in his life. He has shown the white flag today.
“Before I was like, when I say stuff about Dillian Whyte he always fights back and causes a ruckus, now it’s say what you want. He’s given me so much confidence it’s unbelievable. Of course he doesn’t want to go face to face with me because he’ll see the fire in my eyes, and he’ll know he’s going to get smashed to bits.”
