Dillian Whyte wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass without making Mauricio Sulaiman understand how frustrated he remains that he has had to wait this long for his WBC title shot.
Whyte confronted the WBC president on a stage sometime this week at Wembley Stadium in London, where he’ll challenge Tyson Fury on Saturday night before a record-setting capacity crowd of 94,000. The Jamaican-born, London-based heavyweight was animated while explaining to Sulaiman why, as the longtime mandatory challenger for the WBC belt, he should already have fought for that sanctioning organization’s crown.
The 34-year-old Whyte took legal action against the WBC in June 2020 because he believes he had been passed over on multiple occasions for an overdue shot at former champion Deontay Wilder, who held the WBC heavyweight title from January 2015 until February 2020. Sulaiman has argued in the past that Whyte wasn’t actually the WBC’s mandatory challenger for as long as Whyte and his handlers have claimed, not until he beat Colombia’s Oscar Rivas by unanimous decision in a 12-round final eliminator that took place in July 2019 at O2 Arena in London.
Footage from the Whyte-Sulaiman exchange was captured by the sports website, GiveMeSport, and is believed to have happened Wednesday. Links from GiveMeSport’s video circulated across the Internet on Friday.
“I should’ve fought Deontay Wilder a long time ago – a long, long time ago I should’ve fought Deontay Wilder,” Whyte told Sulaiman. “Why didn’t you guys let me fight Deontay Wilder? … And it’s cost me millions to be here, millions. It’s cost me millions.”
Whyte walked away from Sulaiman at that point, but Sulaiman pursued him to further discuss the issue. Sulaiman reminded Whyte that he ultimately is getting his title shot Saturday night.
“Yeah, but what did it take for me to get here? I almost take my mind,” Whyte replied. “Mauricio, this sh!t here almost made me go crazy.”
Sulaiman then mentioned the pandemic as an obstacle that prevented Whyte from fighting for the WBC belt before now.
“No, no, no,” Whyte said. “I fought for the WBC [interim] title twice in the pandemic, two times in the pandemic, and I still paid my sanctioning fees.”
Sulaiman questioned why Whyte continued to rehash history, which Whyte countered by stating, “No, no, because it’s the facts. Don’t tell me it’s pandemic, pandemic, pandemic. No.”
Whyte willingly let the issue go several seconds later and told Sulaiman that he respects him, as well as his late father, Jose Sulaiman, who was the WBC’s president for more than 38 years. Sulaiman wished Whyte “luck and great success” and then they hugged before they walked away from each other.
Whyte was the WBC’s number one contender, one spot ahead of American Dominic Breazeale, when the second-ranked Breazeale was declared the WBC’s mandatory challenger for Wilder’s title. Wilder knocked out Breazeale with a devastating right hand in the first round of their May 2019 bout at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The WBC had ordered Whyte to participate in an elimination match with Cuban southpaw Luis Ortiz, whom Wilder had already knocked out in the 10th round in March 2018 at Barclays Center, for the right to become Wilder’s second mandatory challenger. Whyte declined to participate in that eliminator and instead fought Rivas in an elimination match.
Two bouts later, Whyte, a 4-1 favorite, was knocked unconscious by aged former WBA champ Alexander Povetkin in the fifth round of their August 2020 fight for the WBC interim title at Matchroom Boxing’s headquarters in Brentwood, England. Whyte won the WBC interim championship by stopping Povetkin in the fourth round of their one-sided immediate rematch last March 27 at Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar.
Avenging his loss to Povetkin placed Whyte in position to fight the winner of the third Fury-Wilder fight, which Fury won by 11th-round knockout October 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Whyte withdrew from a fight against Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin, which was scheduled for October 30 at O2 Arena in London, due to a shoulder injury. He didn’t look to reschedule his fight with Wallin because he pursued a much more lucrative showdown with Fury.
Though it took much longer than he had hoped, Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) will be paid significantly more for facing Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) than he likely would’ve earned for fighting Wilder when he initially became the WBC’s number one challenger.
Whyte’s cut of even a lopsided 80-20 split that favors Fury will be a guaranteed $7,384,500 because Fury’s co-promoter, Frank Warren, won their purse bid with a record-setting offer of $41,025,000. Fury’s guaranteed 80 percent amounts to $29,538,000.
A win bonus of 10 percent of Warren’s whopping bid, an additional $4,102,500, has been placed in escrow for the Fury-Whyte winner to collect. If their fight results in a draw or a no-contest, that remaining amount would be split 80-20 among them.
Fury-Whyte is the main event of a five-fight ESPN Pay-Per-View show scheduled to start at 2 p.m. ET in the United States ($69.99). BT Sport Box Office will distribute Fury-Whyte as a pay-per-view main event in the United Kingdom and Ireland (6 p.m. BST; £24.95).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.