Frank Warren has all but confirmed that Dillian Whyte will NOT be fighting Tyson Fury for the WBC heavyweight title.
After Fury defended his WBC belt with an emphatic knockout win over Deontay Wilder in their trilogy bout, the natural next step for the Gypsy King was a fight against mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte.
Wyte has been forced to wait for his chance to fight for a heavyweight world title, but it looked as though his time had finally come, with an early-2022 tussle with Fury thought to be in the cards.
However, that no longer appears to be the case, at least so Frank Warren, Fury’s promoter, has suggested. Quoted by talkSPORT, Warren essentially confirmed that a dispute between Whyte and the WBC has prevented the fight from materialising:
“He won’t be defending his WBC title, there is a problem there, not of his making or our making. The WBC and Dillian Whyte are in arbitration and that hearing is not set to be heard until March. We can’t negotiate.”
“It’s all very well Eddie Hearn saying this nonsense about negotiating, how can you negotiate when the WBC hasn’t said what the splits are?”
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“In his mind, he thinks he’s getting 45 percent, in our mind, it’s 20 percent based on the previous purses that were lodged under WBC regulations. They won’t determine what the percentages are until after the arbitration.”
“That doesn’t mean the fight will take place in April. We have to negotiate, book a venue, and that could go until June. So, Tyson will fight, but not for the WBC title.”
Fury will still be fighting in early 2022 as he looks to remain active ahead of a potential fight for the undisputed title later in the year, but it no longer appears possible for him to take on Whyte.
Whyte must be feeling as though he will never get the chance to fight for a world title. He’s been on the verge on multiple occasions now, but still, it has never come to fruition…