Dillian Whyte: ‘If you put pressure on me, I’ll fight back tenfold’

“You know what,” Dillian Whyte says with a little smile on a tranquil Saturday afternoon in Portugal, “if you’re going to swim in shark-infested waters, you need to prepare yourself mentally and physically.” We are a week away from the world heavyweight championship fight on 23 April, when Whyte will try to rip Tyson Fury’s titles away from him at Wembley Stadium. Fury is a 6ft 9in (2m 5cm) giant who weighs 20 stone (127kg) and has considerable skill, power and resilience. His first professional bout was in 2008 and he remains undefeated after 32 fights. Fury is also a force of nature and a great world champion.

Yet Whyte suggests Fury is not the only shark circling him in the controversial buildup to this fight. The 34-year-old Jamaican-born Londoner shrugs as he details the murky battles he claims he and his team have faced while negotiating the contest. Whyte says they are still squabbling and scrapping over numerous contractual issues and he has yet to sign off the final agreements.

He also believes that, long after the Wembley fight is over, he will win his ongoing case against the WBC and Fury’s backers at the court of arbitration for sport and receive much more than a 20% split of the record $41,025,000 (£31.48m) purse. Whyte says his role as Fury’s mandatory WBC challenger will be recognised with a judgment which rules he should receive at least 30%, and possibly more, from the proceeds. He claims this usual guarantee from the WBC has been ignored by all other parties.

“When you’re swimming with sharks,” Whyte says, “you can’t act surprised and say: ‘I can’t believe I got bitten by a shark.’ The risk is always there. But it is a shame because, if everything had been done properly, we could have had a gigantic