Dillian Whyte’s lawyer has cast uncertainty on the client’s heavyweight title clash with Tyson Fury. After an arduous process the bout was eventually finalised, with Whyte signing the contract just hours before the deadline after a dispute of the payment split between the two fighters.
However, a row has ensued between the two camps and lawyer Jeffrey Benz is unsure whether the highly anticipated all-British title fight will take place. “Dillian is focused on fighting, he’s straightforward in that regard, he’s assuming the fight will go forward, but you never what will happen with this opponent at the last minute,” Benz said.
“But Dillian is doing his thing. It’ll be an exciting fight, if it goes forward – probably the fight of the decade. You just don’t know [if the fight will go ahead].” Fury and Whyte are due to clash at Wembley on April 23 in a mandatory defence of Fury’s heavyweight world title.
But earlier this month Whyte was absent from the press conference to officially launch the bout. Benz claims he has not been in communication with Tyson Fury’s promoter Frank Warren for some time.
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He also said he has not been offered a ticket for his mum and has accused Fury’s team of playing “silly games”. And he went as far as to say he is not absolutely certain Whyte will walk to the ring. “We haven’t spoken to Frank [Warren] or George [Warren] for a month,” Benz said of Fury’s promoters while speaking to talkSPORT. “I had a total of a three-minute conversation with Frank, he called me. Everything we’ve asked for is normal, standard, commercial; it’s not outlandish or outrageous.
“[Their behaviour is] like nothing I’ve ever seen. We don’t have a single ticket for Dillian, his entourage, his mum or anybody else. Contrary to what [Frank] Warren said, we didn’t ask for complimentary tickets equal to the total number of ringside seats; we asked for 25 ringside seats. It’s normal, it’s what we give to Dillian’s opponents. We have been given nothing. We’ve asked for credentials for his security team and video team. They’ve given us the bare minimum. We spent weeks asking them to tell us the size of the ring.
“Imagine if Crystal Palace travel to Chelsea and they don’t know the size of the pitch? It’s been stupid games, it was like pulling tooth and nail. [They’re] trying to stack the deck in favour of Fury.” Warren issued a response claiming Whyte has refused to do any filming for BT in the leadup to the bout. “He has refused to do any filming for BT,” Warren said.
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“He said he didn’t show up because he didn’t get a private plane. We’re not obliged to do this. He wanted a choice of what plane to fly on and he didn’t want any strangers to film him.” Earlier this week Eddie Hearn believes Fury will be perturbed by Whyte’s no-show at their press conference and his recent radio silence.
“It is non-stop arguments between the camps on so many different points, so I just hope they get in the ring and hopefully Dillian gets a shot,” Hearn told PA news agency. “I don’t think Tyson Fury knows where he is with it all. He normally likes to be in control. But Dillian is working hard and just taking the control away from Tyson Fury and he doesn’t know what to do, I guess.”