Dillian Whyte happy to be underdog against Moses Itauma… after building kennel of 22 hounds
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DILLIAN WHYTE finds comfort in being the underdog against Moses Itauma - having built a kennel of 22 hounds.
Whyte faces super-hot prospect Itauma on Saturday in sweltering Saudi Arabia in a crossroads bout.
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Dillian Whyte, pictured in 2018, has a collection of 22 dogs
Credit: Dave Pinegar - The Sun
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He has everything from muscle dogs to puppies
Credit: Dave Pinegar - The Sun
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Moses Itauma is the man to take on underdog Whyte
Credit: PA
The heat will well and truly be on for Whyte in Riyadh - where temperatures are soaring past 45C - with his career on the line.
But Whyte - who has a collection of various muscle dogs and puppies - embraces the underdog role.
He said: "As you know, I'm a dog man. I'm a bit of a dog specialist, so anything to do with dogs I'm there all day every day, so yeah I enjoy it.
"I've got about 15 dogs altogether and just had some puppies, so maybe more. I've got 22 dogs now so there you go.
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"I'm a proper dog expert whether I'm an underdog, top dog, bottom dog, front dog, side dog, as long as there's a dog involved, I'm all in."
Itauma has ten knockouts in his 12 wins - all coming within the first two rounds and debuted aged 18 as Britain's answer to a prime Mike Tyson.
Finding opponents willing to risk their reputation against the 20-year-old has proven to be Itauma's biggest fight since turning professional.
Even veteran hardman Derek Chisora turned down £2million to fight Itauma and questioned why Whyte did accept what most deem a suicide mission.
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MOSES ITAUMA VS DILLIAN WHYTE: ALL THE DETAILS YOU NEED AHEAD OF HUGE HEAVYWEIGHT BOUT
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But daredevil Whyte, 37, hit back: "I don't get these guys.
"They spend their whole career being a hard man, fighting anyone and saying they wanna fight everyone.
Dillian Whyte's incredible rise from eating out of bins and selling Fanta to becoming boxing star
"And what we love about them is the fact that Derek Chisora will fight anyone and he's up for fighting anyone and that's what we always love about him, he's brave and he's gallant.
"And then all of a sudden he's become a coward and picking and choosing who he wants to fight. I don't understand that.
"The mentality has always been the same, I've always taken any fight that's there and taking the most risky fights in my career.
"So yeah, it's the same, nothing's changed."
Whyte has been at the centre of some of the most classic heavyweight bouts in a British ring - twice beating Chisora.
But his career has also been clouded with controversy.
In 2012, he was banned for TWO YEARS after testing positive for methylhexaneamine (MHA) - known to to increase energy.
The stimulant was contained in a pre-workout called Jack3D - which Whyte says he took without knowing it was banned.
In July 2019, Whyte then tested positive for an unknown banned substance before his victory over Oscar Rivas - with the bout allowed to go ahead.
But five months later the case was dropped by United Kingdom Anti-Doping in another case of "isolated contamination".
Whyte's third doping case came in 2023 when his big-money rematch with Joshua - following defeat in 2015 - was scrapped.
Again, the Jamaican-Brit returned an adverse finding and blamed it on contamination before he continued his career overseas.
Whyte had two underwhelming comeback wins but still the contaminated supplement or banned substance has never been revealed.
Probed on his most recent doping case, Whyte snapped: "Can we move on now?
"It's a bit of a dumb question anyway but yeah, thank you for your time. Someone else please."
Whyte beat Christan Hammer in Ireland and Ebenezer Tetteh in Gibraltar - but admitted to feeling defeated outside the ring.
'Someone is going to be on their backside'
He said: "The last few years have been frustrating.
"I had a handful of fights here and there, been out in the wilderness a little bit but as I get older, you realise that life is full of ups and downs."
After a period of inactivity in the sport - Whyte is ready to get his career back on track - by first derailing Itauma's journey to the top.
He said: 'They are saying he's the most dangerous guy from this era and the next era. So I guess that's win-win for me. I'll let the experts decide.
'These last few years have taught me that this is what I do, this is what I love doing and I need to take advantage of it, focus on it and appreciate it because it's here today, gone tomorrow.
"You can be the man today and tomorrow you're nothing. If I go in there and blow Moses out in one round, what will people say?
"Today, he's the next Mike Tyson, who is great, who is amazing, people are talking about him fighting Usyk.
"But if I go in there, do my thing, catch him and blow him out then what? Does that mean he's not good anymore? No it just means it was a good fight and he got caught.
'There's going to be a fight on 16th of August. I'm going to come and do my thing.
"Whether he's the A-side or I'm the A-side, B-side or C-side, someone is going to be on their backside and that's all that matters.'
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