Whyte skips press conference with Fury for Wembley bout

Tyson Fury poured scorn on Dillian Whyte for swerving the press conference heralding their much-anticipated world heavyweight title fight on 23 April at Wembley Stadium.

Whyte was conspicuous by his absence on Tuesday, which Fury's co-promoter Frank Warren, who won the right to stage this fight by putting down a record $41million at purse bids, labelled "disgraceful".

The Londoner, the mandatory challenger to Fury's WBC title, is in Portugal preparing for the bout and, according to Warren, rejected the offer of a private jet to fly to London for the media event.

Fury said: "I've got a new name for him. He is called 'Frillian White Knickers’, because he is as soft as it says in the title.

"He has shown his colours today. He gets upset and causes a ruckus, now he has given me that much more confidence.

"I’m not concerned because this is the Tyson Fury roadshow, it’s never about the opponent.

"He’s ugly anyway, this is about me and celebrating my legacy and celebrating it on the biggest stage possible.

"It doesn’t matter who it is, it’s always going to be the Tyson Fury roadshow.

"He’s definitely raised the white flag for this fight. He doesn’t want to go face-to-face because he would see the fire in my eyes and know he’s getting smashed to bits. It’s fear, it’s terror and I don’t blame him for not being here today."

Whyte is only entitled to 20% of the purse and there was speculation he was seeking to renegotiate terms before signing his contract last week, but Warren argued the 33-year-old was getting a career high pay-day.

"I've never heard of a fighter not showing up to a press conference," Warren said.

"He's getting eight times more than Tyson got to fight (Wladimir) Klitschko, he's getting more than (Anthony) Joshua got paid to