Tyson Fury says he sees Dillian Whyte as a regular “old heavyweight,” lacking the tools to beat him in their fight on Saturday night at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
With Fury, he could be just talking to try and get into the head of Whyte, hoping that he can create enough doubt to where he won’t be punching with knockout intentions on Saturday night.
We saw how close the badly flawed Deontay Wilder came to knocking Fury out last October when he dropped him twice in the fourth round. Whyte is arguably a better fighter than Wilder, and if he can hurt him, he’ll finish the job.
WBC heavyweight champion Fury notes that ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) has an excellent left hook, but he says you need more than that to defeat him.
That is to say, Fury sees Whyte as too one-dimensional to unseat him as the WBC champion, but he could be very wrong.
Whyte looked outstanding in his last fight against Alexander Povetkin a year ago, hurting with both hands from the outset. Even in their first fight in 2020, Whyte was knocking Povetkin around the ring.
If Fury is serious about his intention of retiring after Saturday, Whyte will be one of the contenders that will go after his vacated WBC title.
“He’s just an average old heavyweight, Dillian Whyte, no disrespect to him,” said Tyson Fury to ESPN. “My dad made a very good reference recently, saying, ‘You can’t expect a donkey to in the Kentucky Derby, it’s not happening,’ and that’s it.
“Dillian Whyte is a good old heavyweight, big & strong, tough, and has got a puncher’s chance, but this is elite-level boxing. You need more than a left hook to beat me. You need more than one punch to beat the ‘Gypsy King.’
“As I said to Wladimir Klitschko, ‘You’re not beating me with a three-punch combination. A jab, a right hand, and a left hook. You need more than that,” said Fury.
Joe Joyce picks Fury over Whyte
“Fury is such a big draw now, he commands so much respect,’ Joe Joyce said to the Metro.
“It is going to be a great fight. But I see Fury at range picking Dillian off with the jab and getting the win.
“That is unless Whyte can utilize good head movement, get inside and work the body and head. It will be an exciting fight for sure.”
“It is a relentless style. I don’t think he [Fury] has really had to deal with that before,” said Joyce about his nonstop pressure style of fighting.
“He did a bit of that in the third Wilder fight. But Fury can switch it up. It should be an easy fight to make,” said Joyce.
