Tyson Fury didn’t deliver on his promise Friday to come in heavier than ever for his showdown with Dillian Whyte.
In fact, he didn’t even come close.
The unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion stepped on the British Boxing Board of Control’s scale at 264¾ pounds for their 12-round title fight Saturday night at Wembley Stadium in London. Fury came in Friday 12-plus pounds lighter than his previous career-high, 277 pounds, his official weight for his third fight against Deontay Wilder six months ago.
The 6-foot-9 Fury emphatically completed his trilogy with Wilder by viciously knocking out the former champion in the 11th round October 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Before October 8, Manchester’s Fury hadn’t weighed in at more than 276 pounds for a professional fight.
Fury weighed 276 in his first fight following a 2½-year layoff, a four-round stoppage of overmatched Sefer Seferi in June 2018 at Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
The 6-foot-4 Whyte weighed in at 253¼ pounds Friday. London’s Whyte was six pounds heavier Friday than he weighed for his previous appearance – a fourth-round stoppage of Russia’s Alexander Povetkin in their immediate rematch last March 27 at Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar.
The most Whyte weighed since he turned pro was 271 pounds for a 10-round, unanimous-decision defeat of Poland’s Mariusz Wach in December 2019 in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
Fury, 33, has repeatedly stated that he’ll retire after facing Whyte in a main event expected to draw a capacity crowd of 94,000 to Wembley Stadium in London, which would establish a British boxing record. Whyte, 34, is the mandatory challenger for Fury’s title, despite that Povetkin knocked him unconscious in the fourth round two fights ago.
Most sportsbooks list the undefeated Fury as a 6-1 favorite to beat Whyte, who has lost only to Povetkin and former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ Anthony Joshua. England’s Joshua stopped Whyte in the seventh round of their December 2015 bout at O2 Arena in London.
The battle between Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) and Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) will headline an ESPN Pay-Per-View event in the United States (2 p.m. ET; $69.99) and a BT Sport Box Office pay-per-view show in the United Kingdom and Ireland (6 p.m. BST; £24.95).
By: Keith Idec