QUESTIONS
Simon Jordan grills Eddie Hearn on Dillian Whyte injury amid Tyson Fury speculation as promoter insists: ‘It was never even in his mind about pulling out’
talkSPORT's Simon Jordan grilled promoter Eddie Hearn over Dillian Whyte's withdrawal from his fight with Otto Wallin.
The ‘Body Snatcher’ was due to defend his WBC ‘interim’ belt against the Swede this Saturday, but announced last week that he’d suffered a shoulder injury.
7
After the Wallin fight was initially announced, the WBC ruled that Tyson Fury must defend against the ‘interim’ champion next, unless he is able to agree an undisputed clash with Oleksandr Usyk within 30 days.
As Usyk is obliged to rematch Anthony Joshua, this is off the table and so Whyte is now due for a shot at Fury.
Some have therefore suggested that he is not truly injured and has only withdrawn from the Wallin fight so as not to risk his position as ‘interim’ champion.
This is something Whyte strongly denies and he hit back at these theories in an interview with talkSPORT last weekend.
7
When Hearn appeared on White and Jordan on Thursday, Jordan began: "From a cynical view Eddie, a cynical view is that Wallin's a dangerous fight.
"If he [Whyte] were to lose that fight, then he puts himself way back at the queue again and loses the opportunity that's now manifested itself.
"He now gets the opportunity to fight Fury that might not have manifested itself - because if Joshua had done his job against Usyk we'd now be talking about Joshua vs Fury.
"Now that's been put back, so Wallin becomes a risk.
"So then people start saying, 'Hang on a second, why would Whyte need to take that risk? Because if he lost to Wallin, he's done, he doesn't get a world title shot, does he?'"
7
Hearn replied: "But he's always been a risk, Simon. He hasn't become a risk in the last week.
"When he took this fight it was a risk.
"What you don't know is that this has been emerging behind the scenes with WBC lawyers for a long time.
"We first got wind that Dillian Whyte would be mandatory to the winner of Fury vs Wilder 3 four weeks ago.
7
"With all due respect, Dillian Whyte wouldn't have bothered wasting his time going through camp, paying five people to live in camp with him, sparring with southpaws, preparing for Otto Wallin.
"If he was gonna pull out of the fight because Otto Wallin was dangerous and he was mandatory to Tyson Fury, he would've done that four weeks ago."
Jordan said: "But if Joshua had beaten [Usyk], there would've been a step-aside situation, wouldn't there?
"Because Joshua would have been the fight for Fury in March and not necessarily the situation you now find yourself in - which is Joshua's got to try and get his belts back."
7
Hearn interjected: "No, no, no. We learned about Dillian Whyte being mandatory for the WBC after Joshua against Usyk.
"It was about four weeks ago, and it was before the Fury vs Wilder 3 fight."
Jordan asked: "But why wouldn't he be mandatory Eddie?
"He was the mandatory challenger, wasn't he?"
To which Hearn clarified: "No, no he wasn't.
7
"He's the 'interim' world champion. But four weeks ago, after Joshua vs Usyk, the WBC came out and said the winner of Fury vs Wilder 3 will have to fight the 'interim' world champion.
"We spoke as a team then four weeks ago and said, 'Okay well are we still going ahead with Otto Wallin?'
"And Dillian Whyte said, 'Absolutely I'm going ahead with Otto Wallin. I've trained since May, I'm not gonna wait a year in between fights, I'm fighting'."
Jordan then asked: "I'm sorry, but if you've signed a contract with Wallin, why would you be saying, 'Are we still going ahead with Wallin?'"
7
Hearn replied: "No, we didn't say, 'Are we still going ahead?'
"All of a sudden the position was in, 'Are we happy to proceed with this fight? If not, you have to speak to Otto Wallin'.
"And the answer is, 'Yes,' Dillian Whyte was never not fighting Otto Wallin.
"It was never even in his mind about pulling out of this fight.
"As I said, he's trained for the fight, he wants the fight, he doesn't want to go a year in between fights.
"But obviously when that news broke to us four weeks ago, there was a lot of people saying, Dmitriy Salita included, 'Oh well, we're okay with the fight?'
"I said, 'Yeah, Dillian's fine with this fight, he wants to proceed'.
"And yes, I can see the cynical people to say, 'Three-and-a-half weeks on from that, all of a sudden he has a shoulder injury'.
Read More on talkSPORT
"But honestly, if we pull out of the fight, we do it weeks before.
"If he wants to pull a pretend injury he can do that any time he wants, not after going through weeks and weeks of sparring, costs, everything."
Topics