Dillian Whyte still hoping for shot at Tyson Fury: ‘I’ve earned the fight … it’s about time now’

Dillian Whyte has called on Tyson Fury to stick to his word and hand him a shot at the WBC title after a shoulder injury ruled him out of his scheduled clash with Otto Wallin.

Whyte was supposed to defend his WBC interim title against Wallin at O2 Arena in London on Saturday night but was forced to withdraw after sustaining shoulder damage during training camp. The fight was cancelled — not postponed — and Whyte admits he has no intention of rearranging his showdown with the Swedish heavyweight. Instead, the native of London’s Brixton district will look to capitalize on his lofty status with the WBC who looks set to name Whyte the mandatory challenger to Fury’s belt.

It will be up to the two sides to agree on a deal to fight or face a purse bid to decide who stages the clash. Then Fury would have to face Whyte or relinquish his WBC title just months after defending it against Deontay Wilder.

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“Tyson Fury is a major fight and one that I’ve wanted for a long time,” said Whyte. “What fight would you rather see me in: Tyson Fury or Otto Wallin? Be honest. It’s a simple choice.

“Fury needs to come back to the U.K. We’ve been mandated to fight and me and him have had a lot of backward and forward. We were meant to fight twice before and it didn’t happen. But with Tyson Fury, you never know. I hope he will fight me because he says he’s a fighting man and a man of his word so I would hope so. I would hope that he sees sense that it’s a big fight, a major fight for heavyweight boxing.

“It makes sense and he’s said many times that when he beats Wilder he will. I think this time he will fight, so let’s see. I’ve earned the fight, it’s not voluntary, I worked hard and challenged. I’ve fought more top 10 guys than most champions have. It’s about time now.”

Whyte is also hoping his status as a promotional free agent will help smooth over any deal and is happy to box on any network as long as he gets his crack at Fury.

“I don’t care who promotes it,” Whyte said. “What is most important to me is the fight, the belt is great and I want it but it’s about the fight. I have an opportunity to fight the greatest of all time as everybody is saying. This would be my opportunity to beat the man who beat the man.

“We will go wherever the highest bid is. Let’s see who that is. I’m a free agent so I can go where I want but I work closely with Matchroom out of loyalty over the years and we do good business together. Now Matchroom are with DAZN but we have to go wherever makes sense for us. Eddie [Hearn] is on board with that.

“I want to be in the biggest fight possible and I won’t let a network stop me from doing that. When my career is finished I want to know I fought who I wanted to fight and fought all the best people. A lot of fights don’t get made because of networks and everything else and that’s why we’ve always been like this. It has been hard work but we put a lot of years, time and effort into it.

“The opportunity to fight and beat someone who people are saying is the greatest of all time, from where I’ve come from, what I’ve done and who I was that’s major. I never planned to be great at sport or champion of the world. So for me this is all good.”