‘Absolute rubbish’: Eddie Hearn clarifies Dillian Whyte missing Tyson Fury press conference

Whyte failed to appear at a pre-fight press conference this week at Wembley Stadium

Eddie Hearn has labelled Tyson Fury’s accusation that the promoter told Dillian Whyte to skip the pair’s pre-fight press conference as “absolute rubbish”.

Whyte did not show up to a press event at Wembley this week ahead of the heavyweight clash at the home of the England football team on 23 April.

That left Fury to speak to the media alone, and the undefeated WBC champion accused Hearn of influencing his client’s strategy ahead of their fight.

Hearn, however, has strongly denied that claim, explaining that the decision to remain at a Portugal training camp was entirely Whyte’s.

“I saw Tyson Fury say ‘I told him not to go to the press conference’ — absolute rubbish,” Hearn told Fight Hub TV.

“There’s still a lot of stuff that’s still to be resolved, that he hasn’t had answers for. I don’t want to go into it too much but, you know, tickets for the fight, escrow for the money, he wanted a plane to bring him in, he didn’t want to just go on a low budget airline because Covid still exists.

“Some people want to buy Rolls Royces but they can’t afford the petrol. And this is a problem.

“If you want to spend $42 million on a fight, are you going to bring in a guy from Portugal and you want to put him on an airline? There’s other stuff, they don’t want to give him tickets for the fight.

“So under a purse bid agreement there’s things he does and doesn’t have to do, like it’s not a commercial agreement as per normal. So it’s his own decision.

“If they wanted him there they could’ve had him there, but sort of really didn’t make the effort to treat him in the appropriate manner, in my opinion.”

Whyte had delayed agreeing to go ahead with the fight while he and Hearn tried to negotiate a fairer split of the purse.

The 33-year-old Brixton boxer is Fury’s mandatory challenger and will hope to end his fellow British fighter’s undefeated streak in what could be the champion’s final fight.

Fury has vowed to try and knock Whyte out, but Hearn is confident that his client can win in London next month.

“I think Dillian Whyte’s been waiting a long time for this fight, he just wants to make sure he can make it there healthily, physically ready for the fight,” Hearn continued.

“He’s a very, very tough man. He’s had Tyson over many times in sparring so he’s very confident. He believes he can knock him out and he has a devastating left hook and he’s a fantastic body puncher.

“He’s the underdog but he has the ability to turn your lights out with one left hook, and if Tyson Fury gets sloppy that will land on him and it’ll stop him.”