DILLIAN WHYTE has been preparing for the fight of his life in an Algarve fishing village – as he hopes to catch Tyson Fury cold.
The WBC’s No1-ranked contender moved his camp to Portugal just under two years ago and has been reaping the rewards since.
Dillian Whyte celebrating with his team in 2021
Tyson Fury is set to fight Dillian Whyte next Saturday
On the ground with him are boxing coaches Xavier Miller and Harold Knight, as well as a physio, chef and a team of sparring partners.
Putting all the plans all into place is Simon Evans, Whyte’s performance director over the past seven years and 15 fights.
Here, Evans helps give SunSport a look into their secret and shut-off training camp ahead of the super-fight with Fury on Saturday at Wembley.
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SPARRING
For any fighter, this is the perfect dress rehearsal, but finding elusive, switch-hitting, 6ft 9in heavyweights is no easy feat.
And Fury’s change in tactics of late, from back foot boxer to come forward power puncher also keeps Whyte, 34, guessing.
But his camp drew up a list of ideal sparring partners as early as Chritsmas, and were left happy with what they got.
SE: “Clearly it’s difficult to get someone that’s identical to everything that Fury offers.
“But what we want to get is sparring partners who collectively offer what Fury offers.
“And we have managed to do it, we’re very happy with how the sparring has gone, it was planned out well.
“We’re happy with the preparation, with the height, the styles and Fury is unpredictable, isn’t he?
“I don’t think anyone can say for definite what he’s going to come in and do, you can never be 100 per cent.
“You have your educated guess, and we’ve done a lot of research on that and we have planned for all eventualities.”
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STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING
Whyte weighed 17st 9lb in his last fight, a knockout win over Alexander Povetkin, 42, in their rematch.
But Fury, 33, scaled over two stone more than that when he finished off Deontay Wilder, 36, in round 11 of their trilogy bout in October.
It means matching the Gypsy King’s strength and power is another one of several vital aspects for Whyte.
SE: “The strength and conditioning side of it is very important and it all ties in.
“Because with Dillian, he just trains and trains and trains. If it was down to him, he’d be training all day everyday.
“That’s where it’s really important to monitor everything that he’s doing, whether it’s the amount of rounds he’s doing in the ring or on the conditioning side of things.
“With that, clearly he’s doing weights, he’s very strong, but you can’t go too far one way because it’s all well and good being strong with the weights but can you move?”
Dillian Whyte weighing in for his last fight
NUTRITION
Whyte is partnered with Vow Nutrition, who send him any supplements needed in camp.
They are also all certificated by Informed Sports – who ensure everything is batch tested and clean of any and all banned substances.
Whyte himself was given a two-year suspension in 2012 for unknowingly taking a banned substance – and Vow Nutrition are on board to avoid any repeat mistakes.
SE: “It’s one of those, if you don’t have the support around you or you’re just not aware then if you go to Tesco or Sainsburys, you’d assume everything in there is fine.
Dillian Whyte training for his fight against Tyson Fury
“Well, actually that’s not the case and stuff in any random shop could be on the banned list.
“You wouldn’t think it, you’d always assume to take a banned substance you’d have to go to somewhere really grotty or something quite sinister.
“But that’s not the case, you can get banned substances in anything and just not realise.
“And when I say “banned substance” I don’t mean always steroids, sometimes you can take too much of one thing, you’ve gone over the limit and it becomes banned.
“Or a pre-workout for instance, a lot of pre-workouts have stuff added to them which are banned, it can be quite a complex field.”
Dillian Whyte pictured training in 2020
DIET
Another key part of Whyte’s camp is keeping the engine running – but the amount of fuel can depend on what kind of day he is having.
SE: “Each session may need more carbohydrates than the other. It depends, some days he might have carbs and others it could be less.
“We know where Dillian’s ideal weight is, so there’s limits and that can change depending on who the opponent is, style of the fight.
“But the main thing is from the nutrition side is that Dillian is not feeling tired and always feeling refulled to give everything in each session.”
Dillian Whyte hitting pads with coach Xavier Miller in 2020
MEDIA SILENCE
Whyte remained almost radio silent until the final two weeks, opting against a press conference or any other media appearances.
It came after the challenger revealed ongoing issues were yet to be resolved from his point of view.
There were fears Whyte would even no-show with promoter Frank Warren claiming to have a replacement opponent on standby.
But according to camp manager Evans, Whyte was working away behind-the-scenes, as fight-hungry as ever.
SE: “The thing with Dillian is he’s so focussed.
“Whether there’s 1,000 people in the gym watching him train or there’s no one, he’s so driven internally that it won’t actually make much difference.
“Don’t get me wrong, not having that media attention – not necessarily with him – but it allows the team to focus more on Dillian.
“From that point of view, it has its benefits but the media doesn’t really make much difference to us, we all know our jobs and the end goal.
“We’re all professional, we’re not going to sit and do an interview rather than train – we’ll respect you guys, but you can wait!
“But, it just highlights that the priority is just to get the right result and Dillian is on the same wavelength.
“Nothing will get in the way of being able to perform at your best that night.”
Dillian Whyte with boxing coach Harold Knight
