by Dane McGuire

 

Heavyweight boxing great Tyson Fury has his next opponent. He will face Dillian Whyte for the WBC heavyweight title April 23 at Wembley Stadium in London.

Prior to the official announcement, ‘The Gypsy King’ wrote on social media, “Dillian Whyte signed his contract for $8m, what a surprise … The man’s signed for the biggest payday he’s going to get in his life.”

The pre-fight presser was held March 1.

Whyte did not attend the press conference. Bob Arum, the head of Top Rank Boxing,said Whyte told Fury’s team in advance that he only plans to attend the final press conference the week of their fight.

“He will not come to the press conference,” Arum told BoxingScene.com. “We won the purse bid, which was way higher than the next biggest bid. And he’s not coming to the press conference because we wouldn’t give him a percentage of the upside [from pay-per-view sales], which you don’t get in a purse bid. He told us he won’t come to any of the press conferences except the last one.”

“I’d be concerned if I didn’t have on the other side, on our side, the best salesman in boxing,” Arum said. “So, who’s gonna listen to Dillian Whyte anyway? Tyson will exhaust everyone [Tuesday].”

Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) scored an 11th-round knockout of rival Deontay Wilder in their third fight this past October.

Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs), Fury’s mandatory challenger,  last fought in March 2021. He avenged a knockout loss to Alexander Povetkin, putting away the Russian in four rounds.

BoxingScene said in its report Whyte waited until the deadline imposed by the WBC, February 21, to sign his contract for the Fury fight.

Reportedly, wanted more than the 80-20 purse split that the WBC determined was fair for his shot at Fury’s title. The WBC typically splits purse bids 70-30 in favor of champions for its title fights.

Per terms of their agreement, Fury is guaranteed $29,538,000. Boxing Junkie first reported around $27 million for Fury and $7.6 million for White. Whyte’s guarantee is $7,384,500.

Both boxers also agreed to a win bonus of 10 percent of Frank Warren’s purse bid, $4,102,500.