Eddie Hearn believes that Tyson Fury’s mindgames nullified Dillian Whyte’s biggest strengths of aggression and spite.
The pair contested the WBC championship at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night and Fury retained the belt with a sixth-round uppercut knockout.
Both fighters displayed little animosity in the immediate run-up to the fight, swapping baseball caps at the weigh-in, shaking hands and embracing, and showing little of the aggression that the pair of them have in other pre-fight build-ups.
After the fight, the winner praised Whyte as a ‘lion’ and the defeated fighter called Fury one of the greatest fighters of all time.
Whyte’s promoter Hearn thinks that Fury used his friendly approach to nullify one of Whyte’s biggest strengths, his aggression and spite. Those qualities had seen him spark out Alexander Povetkin last year to regain his mandatory status, and had kept him there for three years.
Speaking on The DAZN Boxing Show, Hearn said: “I only messaged him this morning. I guess, when you get beat like that the last thing you want to be doing is receiving messages from people telling you to keep your head up. I just fired him a message saying just that.
“I viewed the fight as a fan more than anything. Dillian’s a friend and we weren’t involved in the fight. If I’m being honest. I didn’t like what I was seeing at the press conference, at the weigh-in.”
Hearn explained: “I think Tyson did a good job to befriend him at those events, when we all know Dillians’ greatest asset is his ruggedness and his ability to put fear in people. And I actually think you see Tyson fight with that fear, in the fight.
“Let’s be honest, it was a poor fight because Tyson did exactly what he needed to do to win that fight, and he’s very clever at that. And what he needed to do was negate that Dillian Whyte, hold him whenever he could, walk him back to the ropes and box from the outside.
“For me, Dillian Whyte was too passive in the early stages, it was friendly-friendly. There were a few elbows going in as the fight warmed up. Dillian will feel he just made a mistake in the fight in this moment. This wasn’t a mistake like a [Alexander] Povetkin mistake, when he was controlling the fight.
“He was getting outboxed, I didn't give him a round in the fight, maybe one round. Again I’m saying this as a fan, and fans will say [Anthony Joshua] vs [Oleksandr] Usyk, he never imposed himself. You have to admire the quality of Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury, they didn’t allow them to impose themselves in the fight.
“I think inactivity played a massive part as well. I think Dillian has fought something like six rounds in two years. It’s very difficult to go in with inactivity and beat a great fighter like Tyson Fury.”