Dillian Whyte has denied deliberately pulling out of a fight with Otto Wallin by making out a shoulder injury suffered in training was worse than it was.
“The Body Snatcher” faced accusations from Wallin’s promoter Dmitry Salita that he scrapped the headline event to wait on a WBC ruling.
World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman should now name Whyte the mandatory challenger to Tyson Fury. If Whyte had followed through with the Wallin fight and lost, this would no longer be the case.
Salita blasted Whyte for pulling out through injury with just over one week to go.
DILLIAN WHYTE CON ACCUSATION
“The person that is trying to con the public is you,” pointed out Salita. “Your next fight should be the rescheduled one with Otto Wallin.
“Your quote below about fighting Tyson Fury without earning it in the ring against Otto is troubling, to say the least.”
The former fighter was eluding to Whyte, previously telling Sky Sports he didn’t have to go through with the Wallin fight if he chose not to do so.
Whyte has since told BBC Radio 5 Live that he intends to go straight after Fury.
“This is a no-brainer. Tyson Fury is considered the best heavyweight ever,” Whyte told the Five Live Podcast.
“So fight him or fight somebody who doesn’t even know how to speak properly.”
CRITICISM
On criticism by Wallin and Salita, Whyte added:
“All he does is cry. He and [promoter Dmitriy] Salita cry like babies. Crying he’s lost £15,000 on training camp. I spent ten times the amount of that on training camp.
“People know I don’t pull out of fights. My shoulder just completely shut down. I was in pain. I came out of the ring, and I said something’s not right here.
“This ain’t right for me to complain about, but we went and did an MRI [scan] the next day. It showed my shoulder was way worse than I thought it was. I wanted to fight.
“But I said if we managed it, got an injection before the fight, I’ll fight. I didn’t want to pull out. But no, because you get idiots like Salita and Wallin talking crap.”
Concluding on whether the Wallin fight interests him before Fury, Whyte stated: “Wallin was a hand-picked cherry.
“He wasn’t voluntary. He was just someone I picked [to fight].
“I wanted to fight. I begged to fight. If I need surgery after, I need surgery after. I’ve done it before, nothing new to me.”
