Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte passed their latest drug tests ahead of their heavyweight world title fight next weekend.
Fury and Whyte are set to go head-to-head for the 'Gypsy King's' WBC heavyweight crown at Wembley Stadium in front of a record 94,000 crowd. The British pair had produced a clean first round of results which is sanctioned by the WBC as part of their 'Clean Boxing program'.
Now the pair have produced negative tests during the second round of testing that took place on March 21 ahead of their world-title showdown on April 23. Fury had previously been handed a two-year ban in 2017 which was backdated after testing positive for nandrolone in 2015. He frequently denied using the substance to cheat and blamed the result on eating an uncastrated wild boar.
Whyte also produced an adverse result in a test prior to his meeting with Oscar Rivas in 2016 where he was first crowned interim champion. The 'Body Snatcher' was stripped of the belt by the organisation, but an investigation by UKAD concluded that Whyte was not guilty of wrongdoing.
A contaminated supplement containing trace amounts of two metabolites of steroids caused his test to come back positive, and he had also passed a test with VADA in the build-up to the fight. Whyte has previously also used Fury's positive test for cocaine to mock his rival on social media, when it previously looked as if the pair would meet in the ring.
Whyte has remained silent since the champion's promoter Frank Warren won purse bids to stage his fight with Fury. He has been unhappy with his treatment surrounding the contractual terms of the fight, and failed to show at a press conference to promote the event earlier this year.
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Fury has also been on a social-media blackout to focus on his preparations for the event, but recently broke his cover to confirm the progress of his training camp and fire a KO warning to his rival. Despite being the underdog, Whyte will fancy himself to cause a huge upset and snatch the belt after more than 1,000 days of waiting to enforce his shot.
Boxing legend Ricky Hatton believes Whyte will have to knock out the undefeated star to have any chance of having his hand raised. “I think he has to go for the knockout,” Hatton told talkSPORT. “Let’s have it right, he’s not going to outbox Tyson Fury, he’s not going to out-speed Tyson Fury. Tyson, for a giant, 6ft 10in, is so versatile.
"So, there’s no point in Dillian going out there thinking he can outbox Tyson because he can’t. He’s got to go for the knockout and try and get that big one in. Tyson’s been on his backside a few times. Dillian will know he’s capable of landing that and beating Tyson."
