Dillian Whyte has rubbished any suggestion that Tyson Fury’s pre-fight talk can unsettle him ahead of Saturday’s fight at a sold-out Wembley Stadium.
The Brixton puncher will challenge the WBC world heavyweight champion in front of a crowd of 94,000 in north London.
Whyte has only started doing any media work to promote the bout at the end of last week after disputes with Queensberry Promotions, who teamed up with Top Rank to win the purse bid to stage the contest, over some of his demands.
But the South Londoner, who is Fury’s mandatory challenger and has long been one of the leading fighters in the heavyweight division, has insisted that his opponent will not be able to either intimidate or throw him off his game.
“I don’t care what Tyson Fury says,” Whyte told BT Sport Boxing. “Tyson Fury says a lot of s*** – his mouth is like a toilet. He just keeps on flushing, flushing, flushing and flushing. He just talks any random s*** that comes out of his mouth.
“I don’t care what he says or does. Me and him will fight regardless. We’re going to get in the ring and fight. I don’t care about mind games. I’m a warrior. If he wants it, any time or anywhere, I’m down. I don’t give a f*** about this or the other.
“He can say what he wants: ‘Tyson Fury is the king of mind games’. It doesn’t mean anything to me. He can’t get in my head. Even if he gets in my head then he’s just going to find a lot of disturbance in there.
“I’m looking forward to getting on the scales, weighing in, chilling out and then getting in there and fighting for the heavyweight world title. Because kids like me shouldn’t be where I am. Kids from where I come from shouldn’t be alive and doing well. I’m far from where I want to be – I’m not comfortable or content – I’m still struggling and still driving. I’m still hungry and still have some fire in my belly.
“I want to put on a good fight, win the title and leave it all in the ring – prove to myself and my family that it is not where you start in life, it’s where you finish.
“I didn’t think I’d be alive past 20. I thought I’d be in prison doing charges for some murders or something crazy. That was the lifestyle that was forced on to me because of unfortunate circumstances and the way I was brought up and the things I was exposed to.
“My mum left me to go to the UK to build a better life. She was working three jobs and she had other kids. She was sending money to the people who were supposed to be looking after me but they weren’t taking care of me. I was just abandoned, basically. I learned to survive, I learned to be tough and I learned to be resilient.
“I never thought I would be here sitting in front of cameras and fighting for the world heavyweight championship.”