After David Haye pulled out from the Tony Bellew rematch, one fighter who openly offered to take Haye’s place and challenged Bellew was Dillian Whyte.
Let’s not let the boxing fans down @EddieHearn I will fight Bellew @TonyBellew in December and beat him up even without a proper training camp @SkySportsBoxing
— Dillian Whyte (@DillianWhyte) November 20, 2017
Whyte has been calling Bellew ‘a fake heavyweight’ for a while now. He was very eager to fight ‘The Bomber’ in December and save the big event at the O2 but the proposed fight did not come to fruition. The outcome left a bad taste in Whyte’s mouth.
I apologise to all the people that the fake heavyweight @TonyBellew has let down by not having the balls to fight me & save the December show @SkySportsBoxing the mans a coward
— Dillian Whyte (@DillianWhyte) November 21, 2017
In a recent interview with talkSPORT, Whyte absolutely trashed the Liverpudlian on air, calling him ‘a coward’ and ‘a disgrace’.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t make the Tony Bellew fight. We could have made so much money. We could have saved the event. Look at how many fans he’s let down. This guy is a disgrace. This would have been the perfect Christmas cracker for everyone. People would have tuned in. He’s a let down. Tony Bellew is a massive let down. I’m disappointed in his mind set and mentality he showed to me when I approached him for the fight. It’s disgusting,” said Whyte.
‘The Body Snatcher’ wasn’t done and continued his verbal onslaught towards Bellew.
“In boxing, everything is about timing. He wouldn’t move up to heavyweight to fight David Haye six or seven years ago. I would have fought David Haye six or seven years ago no problem. Everybody forgets Tony Bellew should have been knocked out by a midget, Adonis Stevenson, but I don’t go on about that. The guy’s a coward. If you’re going to move up to heavyweight, you have to fight all comers. He said: ‘Oh, I don’t want to fight [Anthony] Joshua. I don’t want to fight Deontay Wilder – but I’m a heavyweight’.
“If you’re in the weight division, you want to fight the best. That tells you he doesn’t consider himself the best and he doesn’t have the right mind-set,” told Whyte.
“Tony Bellew, he’s just a coward. He doesn’t want to fight any top heavyweights. He’s gonna cherry pick guys like David [Haye] who’s a good cruiserweight, moves up to heavyweight, done really good but he’s finished. He [Bellew] might try to fight Parker but I think Parker knocks him out as well.”
Another interesting part of the interview was when Whyte started to talk about Anthony Joshua. The WBC Silver Heavyweight champion pointed out some of Joshua’s weaknesses and claimed that ‘AJ’ is not really a feared one punch knockout fighter.
“We’ve both improved. He’s the golden boy. He won the Olympic gold medal so they looked after him and guided him the right way.
“But he’s not really this massive one punch knockout guy. If you can push him back and take his punches, you give him problems. That’s what I proved when I fought him. I went in heavily injured and badly out of shape and I still gave him a lot of problems. I gave him a hell of a lot of problems. And a 43 year old Klitschko gave him the same thing,” explained Whyte.
Joshua has faced big punchers in his career who gave him problems but the number one World heavyweight champion has always fought through adversity and never been defeated in his professional career. Still, Whyte believes he’s ‘very beatable’.
“If you have movement and you can take the punishment he dishes out early, you can beat him. He’s very beatable. He’s a great athlete, but he’s beatable,” told Whyte
Whyte fought against Joshua in 2015 and got knocked out. He says the beef is still on and personal.
“To me that fight is personal. But it is a business as well as it is personal. I’d take that fight tomorrow but my team around me, the wiser heads around me, said ‘listen, go get a world title’ and that’s why I’m pursuing the likes of Parker and Wilder,” summarised Whyte.
READ MORE:
Whyte Not A Part Of Wilder’s Plans
Dillian Whyte Wants ‘AJ’ Rematch
