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Heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte lashed out after reading statements from Top Rank’s CEO Bob Arum.
Whyte is the World Boxing Council’s mandatory challenger, in position for a direct title shot at WBC world champion Tyson Fury.
Arum, who promotes Fury, would like to speak with the WBC to discuss the topic of delaying Whyte’s mandatory shot – in order eliminate any obstacles from a potential clash between Fury and unified champion Anthony Joshua.
Pursuant to a WBC order, Whyte is due a mandatory shot by February 2021.
Fury was scheduled to face Deontay Wilder in a trilogy fight in July. Because of the pandemic, the fight has been postponed until the final few months of the year.
Should Fury and Joshua win their upcoming fights, they will be in line to fight each other in 2021.
Arum believes the coronavirus pandemic, which shelved boxing for several months, is reason enough to push back or even cancel previously issued mandatory orders.
“We will be talking to the organisations to eliminate mandatories, or to postpone them all for at least one year. I am sick and tired of being forced, with my marquee fighters, to fight meaningless fights against mandatories that mean nothing,” Arum told Sky Sports.
“I won’t denigrate Dillian Whyte, but the fact that he’s a mandatory means nothing to me. If he fought Fury in the US it would be the same as Fury fighting [Otto Wallin]. It means nothing. All boxing promoters and all organisations have to get together to get things rolling at the highest level. Then we’ll worry about mandatories.”
Whyte, who’s held the WBC’s number one position for several years, erupted over Arum’s comments.
“Arum’s talking rubbish. If he represented me he’d be screaming that this is the biggest travesty in the history of boxing – nearly 1,000 days as No 1 without being given a shot whereas Tyson Fury barely scraped by the WBC No 31 ranked Otto Wallin in front of only 3,500 people and then got gifted my mandatory position without fighting an eliminator, never mind a final eliminator,” Whyte told Sky Sports.
“Fury won the belt off that pathetic, hype job Deontay Wilder as his legs were too weak to carry it any longer after running away from me for years and it now looks like the two of them are in a relay. The WBC had originally agreed that the winner of Wilder-Fury II had to fight me by May 2020. Now Wilder’s injured and Arum’s trying to delay my shot further. It’s all wrong and has nothing to do with Covid-19.
“If he was fit to fight, they could fight in July. Who cares if they don’t have an audience. Big deal. Both of them have fought most of their careers with hardly any audience.”
Whyte believes Fury, based on their past sparring sessions, is running from the fight.
“I have been ranked No 1 since 2017 and have fought more top 15 contenders than Wilder and Fury combined. I am the Ring Magazine No 2 ranked heavyweight in the world, higher than Wilder,” Whyte said.
“No one is mentioning me as they are scared of fighting me. One hundred per cent I beat Fury. He knows it and that’s why he doesn’t want to face me. We have history. He has run in the past and he’s running scared now.
“The WBC should order Fury to fight me next but I don’t think ‘The Gypsy Coward’ will. After all he was previously ordered by the WBC to fight me, but he ran away, even when they met his demand of putting the Diamond Belt on the line.”