Ricky Hatton criticizes Dillian Whyte as “unprofessional”

By Jack Tiernan: Ricky Hatton is critical of Dillian Whyte for his “unprofessional” behavior by his decision not to help publicize his April 23rd fight against WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury by electing not to attend the first press conference for their fight at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

Hatton feels that Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) has waited so long to get a shot at a world title finally, he’s not doing himself any favors by choosing not to publicize his fight against the popular unbeaten WBC champion Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs).

Ricky notes that Whyte, 33, isn’t happy with his purse split, but he’s still getting the biggest purse of his career by far.

Is Whyte burning his bridges?

Hatton didn’t say the long-term ramifications for Whyte’s career if he chose to stay silent during the entire promotion of this event.

Will other promoters want to pit their fighters against Whyte if they’re not sure he’ll pull a similar move by choosing not to help promote the fight?

If promoters feel that dealing with Whyte will be a massive headache, will they want to go through the trouble of matching their fighters against him?

Of course, if Whyte beats Fury on April 23rd, it won’t matter that he chose not to help with the fight’s promotion.

Whyte would be the WBC champion and would move on to make a massive amount of money in an undisputed clash against the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk rematch.

Losing to Fury, mainly if it’s a bad loss, could put Whyte’s career in a place that he’s avoided, and that could be something that stalls the last remaining good years that he has in his career.

“He’s played a few silly games, not turning up for the press conference, which is a little bit disrespectful,” said Ricky Hatton to Talksport Boxing. “If you’re not going to publicize the fight, you’re not going to get bums on seats, are you?

“So, I think he’s been a little bit unprofessional in that area. He’s let himself down.

“He’s going to have to go for the knockout because he’s not going to be able to outbox Tyson Fury or outspeed Tyson Fury.

“He’s so versatile. There’s no point in Dillian trying to outbox Tyson. He’s got to try and get that big one in, and Tyson has been on his backside a few times,” said Hatton.

It goes without saying that Whyte will need to score a knockout of Fury for him to win the fight, seeing that he’s only fought one boxer during his career in his fight against Joseph Parker in 2018.

Whyte struggled with Parker and wound up winning a close 12 round decision after getting dropped.

Fury is on another level to Parker, both in size and boxing skills, meaning Whyte will need to go all-out to try and score a knockout of the 6’9″ Tyson if he wants to get the win on April 23.

It’s going to be difficult for Whyte to try and stop Fury because he does well against aggressive fighters that attack him in straight lines the way Dillian typically does.

Whyte will need to look at the success Deontay Wilder had on the inside against Fury last October, and try and capitalize on that.

Staying on the outside against the long-armed Fury will be a recipe for disaster for Dillian, which leaves him no choice but to take the contest to the inside where he can club him with short punches.