Boxing media struggles with intrusive reality in “weird” bout that led to Fury vs Whyte Title

By John “Gutterdandy” Walker

While fans can debate who can win this Saturday when the WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and challenger Dillian Whyte met at Wembley Stadium in the United Kingdom, one thing leading up to this bout made it clear that the mainstream boxing media itself was a loser before delivering a punch. The media has too often shown themselves to be asleep at the switch and furious in the face of some very strange happenings.

The curious events surrounding this fight really started back in October 2021, when Whyte was supposed to take on Sweden. Otto Wallina rising heavyweight contender who caused Tyson Fury to swell during their meeting in September 2019. Early in that bout, Wallin ripped Fury’s face off with a punch, the injury so severe it was. could (and probably should) end the fight, which should have seen The Gypsy King take its first defeat.

Fury fought bravely, but by the final round, Wallin was dominating, literally knocking his opponent down. The final score given by the judges gave Fury a comfortable win without accurately reflecting what just happened in the ring.

As Wallin day approaches, the highly ranked Dillian Whyte is losing ground among bettors: Wallin’s strong performance against Fury, coupled with the fact that Whyte got a devastating knockout under the hands of a 40-year-old Russian veteran. Alexander Povetkin in August 2020 (his “revenge” loss to Povetkin of Covid-19 weakened in the rematch in March 2021) were the main reasons given for this loss of confidence in “The Body Snatcher”.

The more the fight is discussed, the more fans and analysts believe that the talented Swedish counter-attacker has excellently defeated Whyte and rematched the current WBC heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury.

That’s when strange events started happening.

It should be noted that Dillian Whyte is inherently no stranger to controversy. When he fought the Colombian heavyweight in Montreal Oscar Rivas in July 2019 in the UK, Whyte won by a unanimous decision (although he was knocked down in the ninth round), but it later emerged that steroids had been detected in Whyte’s blood. before the war and the Rivas camp was not made aware of this by either advertiser Eddie Hearn or Boxing Control Board.

Whyte was later “removed” by the UK Anti-Doping Agency (UKAD), although they did not deny the boxer had steroids in his system, There were also complaints about Whyte changing his gloves so late. to fight and a complaint was filed by the angry coach Rivas Russ Anber. A boxing publication said the Rivas-Whyte match was buried beneath a “mountain of controversy”.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that Dillian Whyte simply pulled out of his scheduled fight with Otto Wallin. ten days before the war. The reason given was that Whyte suffered a “shoulder injury”, for which no medical evidence was provided by the boxer or his promoter, Eddie Hearn. Wallin is understandably angry, but Hearn denies, and Whyte is famously normally mostly silent, state that he will continue immediately leading up to this Saturday’s title fight with Tyson Fury at the Stadium. Wembley Stadium in Great Britain.

Inexplicably Whyte declined to participate in the promotion of this match until he appeared at a Zoom press conference on April 14 (Whyte also did not show public practice during the match week). ). One might think that the first question for Whyte from the handpicked journalists in attendance would be, “How are your shoulders kept up?” Shoulder injuries in boxing are often very serious, as both former WBO and WBC champions Vitali Klitschko and current candidate Robert Heleniusboth suffered major career setbacks due to bad roles, verifiable.

Dillian Whyte’s role, if nothing else, has certainly been put in a “cold” position in the run-up to his upcoming bout with Fury, as he repeatedly blows away the appearance of the other players. media and remains a ghostly figure.

If Dillian Whyte’s shoulder injury was too severe to keep him out of the match against Wallin with just ten days left, it would have been better to ask Whyte if he had had any problems with it in training camp. But not one of the selected journalists, many journalists with years of experience and awards, even claim that mention it. Most seem to be interested in the usual “goodwill” of the warriors with cheerful greetings.”How’s it going champion? ” and general questions that generate superficial responses. It seems to be no one really believe Whyte’s injury was justified in the first place, so why ask about it now?

That can shake the boat, after all.

This kind of oblivion, intentional or otherwise, by the boxing media leading up to Fury vs Whyte is not limited to the questions posed. [or not asked] by Whyte. Tyson Fury’s involvement with the famous Irish drug lord Daniel Kinahan, now a wanted man on the run from law enforcement with a $5 million bounty on his head, was also passed during this initial virtual press conference. The reporters chosen to question Fury tried to avoid mentioning the Irish gang leader, a former confidant of The Gypsy King.

When MTK Global’s boxing promotions, a Kinahan car, eventually crashed and closed completely the following week, but the boxing press still did its best to ignore the situation. When Fury is finally asked a question about his former mentor Kinahan, he looks and looks annoyed, and says it’s “none of his business”, but what he really seems to be saying. , judging by the tone of his voice, is, “not of yours business.”

This is from a man who used to wear the MTK logo on his clothes and who is raking in millions of dollars from his upcoming fight – which Fury now insists will be his last, to the contrary. Probably with what he said before the story about Kinahan was reported.

A confused and shaken Fury even claimed that the only time he broke the law was when he received a speeding ticket, but spoke at the final press conference of the cocaine binge. causing him to cancel two scheduled rematches against the Ukrainian world heavyweight. champion Wladimir Klitschkowho was dethroned by Fury in 2015 during a tumultuous period in Klitschko’s personal life.

At press time, inhaling cocaine is still illegal in the UK. But the press also did not catch this contradiction. Follow-up questions are not the specialty of today’s mainstream boxing press.

In Guardians newspapers, Donald McRae wryly writes that the first Zoom press conference for Fury vs Whyte “designed so that the only reporters invited to ask Fury any questions are those who intend to exchange enticing greetings with him or ask him about his golf swing, his faith or the feeling of fighting on St George’s Day. Kinahan’s name hasn’t been mentioned once in more than 50 minutes of mediocrity, deception, and stupidity. It’s an embarrassing day for the boxing press. ”

In fact, all this publicity has shown that the mainstream boxing media is often nothing more than “access journalism,” a term often favored by American cultural commentators. prefer. Jimmy Dore. When a journalist is too afraid to ask questions because what he or she really wants to do is to be friends with activists and/or advocates, and to protect their access to those people, that person is no longer a journalist. , but it’s a PR stunt. And that’s what too many boxing writers have become in 2022: outreach journalism; public relations hack masquerading as actual journalists.

Asking a question that can rock the boat, possibly upset the camps of Tyson Fury or Dillian Whyte, is therefore often seen as not worth the price the questioner may have to pay.

The fate of Otto Wallin, who, due to Dillian Whyte’s mysterious “shoulder injury”, had to bag his pockets for a lengthy training camp and the material and monetary expenses of his attendant, and was denied the ability to rematch with Tyson Fury, has little interest in “accessing boxing journalists.” There’s free tickets to fights, free food at press events, and superficial interviews to protect Opposition journalism is just out of style, and in fact now marks one as the bad guy in the small world of boxing writers.

So Otto Wallin will sit and watch what happens on Saturday, and wonder what could have happened.

And to see if Dillian Whyte’s tough role is a good fit.