Dean Whyte: "There should be a level playing field"
BoyleSports Boxing caught up with Dean Whyte – a member of Dillian's team – ahead of his huge heavyweight fight with Tyson Fury next weekend.Dean, who is a consultant at boxing promotion Blvckbox Global, claims Tyson Fury has treated Whyte fans with a lack of respect and believes his brother is far better than Wilder and will be much tougher fight for the WBC heavyweight champion.
Dean Whyte: Tyson Fury has treated Whyte fans like ‘s***’ and with a lack of respect
“There's been a lack of respect and a lack of humility [from Tyson’s side]. Just because they've won the purse bid there's a feeling that just because they have control they can treat us like sh*t. First off we're human beings – if they wanted the best out of Dillian, or any athlete – you treat them with courtesy and respect.
“They won the purse bids but then we have all the shenanigans; four tickets for fight night, three seats on a Ryanair plane economy for the presser, all of this caper. You spent 41 million on this fight. Why would you want to send one of the prize assets on an economy plane where you could catch COVID, then spread it around the press conference, and the whole show gets disbanded?
“There's a lot of cheap shots, for example, they are only allowing us four members of the team backstage on fight night. You wouldn't get that on a Matchroom show. Fury will have 100 people backstage. There should be a level playing field, let's be reasonable. No tickets to sell to Whyte fans, allegedly Tyson Fury has done this all on his own, apparently there's no Dillian Whyte fans. Maybe it's not contractual but I've never seen a fighter not get tickets to sell to their fans.”
“I think it was Ticketmaster they allegedly sold the tickets to. A lot of resellers have bought them and they're on StubHub. I understand that's the game, but the thousands of Dillian fans that have messaged me can't get a ticket because they're too much.”
Dean Whyte: Dillian is a different animal to Wilder and poses much bigger challenge to Fury
“Dillian is a different fighter to Deontay Wilder, he’s a different breed. Dillian’s shot selection is a lot better than Deontay Wilder. Wilder jabs and has a big right hand. I don’t think his shot selection is as good. Everyone talks about Dillian’s left hook, but Dillian’s body punching too. He’s a good boxer-fighter. In this game it’s about level – you must give credit for knocking down everyone he’s faced – but when it comes to boxing ability he’s not as good as Dillian.
“If you compare the fighters side by side, Deontay Wilder normally gets outboxed and then catches them when they slow down. He hits them and they go to sleep. Dillian systematically breaks his opponents down and either gets them out of there or gets the decision. Skill set for skills set you can see who is the most improved technical boxers out of the two.”
Dean Whyte: There is absolutely no need for a substitute, Whyte has never been fitter and is raring to go
“It's surprising that they've lined up a substitute, although maybe not that surprising if you consider the magnitude of the fight and how much money they have spent on it.
“Maybe they feel discussions with the team aren’t going well and Dillian’s silence, maybe that's giving them some reservations that Dillian might not turn up. But he’s training very hard, he's putting all of the work in in the gym. And all of the talking is going to be left to be done in the ring.
“Dillian is mentally in great shape, physically he's in great shape. He's ready and raring. He's all smiles but he's serious underneath, he knows he's got a task at hand. We know our game plan and we're going to go out there and impose what we need to impose.”
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