Dillian Whyte: Boxing saved me from 'either death or jail'

The 29-year-old has opened up on the role boxing played in turning his life around, steering him clear of knives and saving him from 'either death or jail'

Dillian Whyte was speaking in the wake of Scott Westgarth's tragic death (Getty)

Dillian Whyte was just 13 years old when he was first stabbed, long before he ever walked into a boxing gym. Such attacks would go on to become a reasonably regular part of his teenage years.

But now the 29-year-old has opened up on the role boxing played in turning his life around, steering him clear of knives and saving him from ‘either death or jail’.

The sport’s place in modern society has been brought into sharp focus following the tragic death of Scott Westgarth, who fell ill and died following his victory over Dec Spelman at the Doncaster Dome on Saturday night.

Whyte paid a glowing tribute to his fellow fighter and admitted the news has forced him to consider his position in the sport just weeks before his make-or-break fight against undefeated Australian Lucas Browne at the O2 Arena on March 24.

“It’s an emotional subject really because what’s the right thing and what’s the wrong thing to say?” Whyte said. “The main thing is that he died doing something he enjoyed.

“A lot of people waste their time and end up dying doing something they don’t enjoy but he went doing the thing he loved. There’s no happy time to die but if I had a choice, I’d die doing the thing I loved.

“But this is a reminder of how dangerous our sport is, we risk our health and our life every time we step into the ring just to make a living and to put on a good show for the fans.

“I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t make me consider doing this, but I just try not to think about that. Every sport has dangers and it’s a risk we all take but that’s why people need to give us the credit we deserve.

“We are doing something that’s not normal and we know it. It’s a risk we all sign up for.”

Dillian Whyte admits boxing helped turn his life around (Getty)

But Whyte, who has won all but one of his 23 bouts, says he is eternally grateful for the way in which boxing transformed his life following his arrival from Jamaica as a child.

“My mum hates the fact that I fight,” he added. “My sisters hate it too but they understand that boxing gave me a way out. It saved me, it made me someone, it made me the person I am today, mentally and physically.

“I was one of those kids who was not meant to be anything at school, I was either meant to be dead or in prison at this age, to be honest.

“I came here from Jamaica as a kid and didn’t go to school really, never had a great education. I was a little bit bad on the street, running around, doing this, doing that and always getting into trouble. I was completely written off so boxing has definitely saved my life.

“I’ve been stabbed, I’ve been shot. I wasn’t the best kid. I was running around being crazy and excited, and I thought it was cool at the time.

“I thought ‘I’ve been stabbed, I’ll show my mates’. I’d lift my top up and say ‘look I got done here at the weekend’. But you never realise the risk you were taking in those days.”

Whyte said he was stabbed when he was 13, 15 and 16 (Getty)

Whyte has been horrified by the recent surge of knife crime across the capital and now hopes his ascent through the heavyweight division can act as an example that boxing can genuinely offer a way out.

“I got stabbed when I was 13, 16 and 15,” he said. “That’s actually how I got into fighting. I got into trouble and my youth worker took me to the gym because he saw me always fighting and getting into trouble. Once I started doing it I just fell in love with it.

“It’s really sad because a friend of mine lost her son a few weeks ago because of knife crime. Some kid stabbed him in his neck because he was in the wrong postcode. He’s from CR15 and he was in CR18 or something silly.

“Knife crime has just gone completely out of control. There is no point just locking people up or throwing people in jail. We have to educate the younger generation.

“For me, boxing is a great sport for any kid that is out of control or who thinks they’re a bad boy. Boxing humbles you and teaches you discipline. It teaches you self-control, discipline and self-respect. If you think you’re a hard man who can go and stab someone, they will put you in the ring and make you spar someone for one or two rounds and you will realise that this is where it’s at.

‘For me, boxing is a great sport for any kid that is out of control or who thinks they’re a bad boy’ (Getty)

“For a 17-year-old kid to cut another 17-year-old’s throat, you can’t know what you’re doing. You do these things and then when you’re locked up for 30 years you think about it. A lot of them go mad and kill themselves.

“As a young kid you don’t know what you’re doing and you get influenced by the people around you. That’s the problem with a lot of these kids nowadays, they are doing these things but they don’t understand what they’re doing.

“But it’s good that people from the same background as me can look at me and think ‘do you know what, Dillian is doing alright, maybe I can try to change my life too’.

“You do stuff when you’re young that you don’t think about. I did carry weapons when I was young, but that is all in the past.

“Boxing draws you in, you just want more and more. The technical side of it, the mentality side of it, it grows you as a person. That’s the difference between boxing and other sports, it’s a self-driven sport, you can see yourself going up, climbing and learning.”