Dillian Whyte explains why he felt “mugged off” ahead of Tyson Fury world title fight

Whyte had made no comment on his fight with Fury until this week after feeling aggrieved at how he had been treated in the build-up

Dillian Whyte has claimed he has been “mugged off” in the build-up to his world title fight with Tyson Fury.

Whyte and Fury will finally clash at Wembley on April 23 in a fight which will bring an end to the Londoner’s 1,000-day wait for a shot at a heavyweight belt. But Whyte had thrown the fight into doubt when he refused to commit to promoting the show.

He failed to turn up a press conference last month and until this week had declined to discuss the fight on social media. But the 34-year-old has now confirmed he will take part in next week’s press conference and weigh-in ahead of the biggest bout of his career.

“It’s not the Tyson Fury show, his fights with Detonay Wider didn’t sell out, it’s not just the Tyson Fury show,” he said. “This show sold out because of me and Tyson Fury. This is about Tyson Fury and me, it’s the Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte show.

“I don’t dance to no-ones tune. We can dance together but it can’t be one-way traffic. I’m a disciplined guy, I’ve learned to be disciplined over the years. You want me to do things? Cool, but I’m a professional. I’ve had six or seven pay-per-view shows and I know how to do things and I’ve always dealt with my opponents if things have been done incorrectly.

‘When these guys are trying to mug me off and treat me like it’s the Tyson Fury show, they needed to get things corrected. Once things were corrected… I’m a professional at the end of the day and here I am.”

Whyte will challenge for a world title for the first time when he walks out in front of 94,000 fans at the national stadium next week. The first bell will signal the end of a long wait which saw him lose and then regain his position as mandatory challenger over two fights with Alexander Povetkin.

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And Whyte added: “It’s been a long time coming, we’ve worked hard. We’ve fought top fighters and kept risking the position we were in. Even when we were mandatory the fight didn’t happen and we had to go through the legal process. We had to push the legal angle and we finally got him to fight me.”