FRANK WARREN insists Dillian Whyte is out of the heavyweight world title race if he refuses to sign the £30million deal to fight Tyson Fury by the end of the week.
The WBC have awarded the 33-year-old Brixon challenger just 20 per cent of the purse – a basic £6million – and set a deadline of Saturday (19th) to return the signed contract.
Whyte has remained stoically silent in the months of build-up, leaving fans to wonder if he is holding up proceedings to annoy Team Fury and their BT Sport broadcasters – or if promoter Eddie Hearn is offering him an alternative career path.
But Warren, whose Queensberry brand won the purse bid with a record breaking figure, has told bitter rival Hearn and the Body Snatcher that it’s his way or the highway.
“If he doesn’t sign he’s out,” Warren said. “Those were the terms of the purse bid.
“Why wouldn’t he sign? He’s getting a massive purse, it makes no sense for him not to sign.
“From the day of the purse bid, there were 21 days to lodge the contract, regardless of what Eddie Hearn says.
“We’re not even dealing with Hearn, we’re dealing with Dillian Whyte’s lawyer, Hearn has no involvement unless we’re told otherwise.
“We’ve been dealing and negotiating with his lawyer and that’s it.”
Hearn’s Matchroom company and broadcasting app DAZN came second in the two-horse purse race and have no input in the fight.
But the Essex mogul is still bombarded with questions and has tried to take potshots but claiming Fury cannot be trusted to turn up to the April 23 Wembley showdown, leaving Warren raging.
The hall-of-fame promoter – who is working alongside Bob Arum’s Top Rank firm – said: “Hearn has a lot of things to say, he said Tyson was never going to fight Deontay Wilder the first time.
“He said he wasn’t going to show up, he doesn’t trust him to show up.
“He said we wouldn’t win the purse bid, we wouldn’t put any money in.
“All the time he says lots of things and, to be quite honest, he’s got nothing to do with this fight, it’s all irrelevant.
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“The fight is a three-way thing, it’s Queensberry, Top Rank and Tyson Fury, that’s all we care about and that’s where it’s at.
“As far as Hearn’s concerned, he sends a lot of stuff out that just confuses people, the facts are the facts.”
Las Vegas legend Arum, now 90-years-old and still arguing over mega-money fight deals – also put the boot into Hearn, blaming his love of the spotlight for fights collapsing.
Muhammad Ali’s former fight maker said: “He just won’t shut up.
“He has all these nothing guys in the United States, who can’t draw their breath let alone any fans.”
