Fury heavier than Whyte ahead of heavyweight title showdown / Photo: © AFP
Fury heavier than Whyte ahead of heavyweight title showdown
Tyson Fury weighed in 11 pounds (five kilogrammes) heavier than challenger Dillian Whyte ahead of his WBC heavyweight title defence against his British rival at Wembley on Saturday.
Fury registered 264 pounds 13 ounces on Friday -- more than 12 pounds lighter than the career-high 277 pounds he weighed the day before knocking out Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas in October.
Whyte, the WBC's mandatory challenger, weighed 253 pounds 4 ounces ahead of Fury's first contest on UK soil since August 2018, which is expected to attract a post-war British record boxing crowd of 94,000 fans.
While the pair have traded barbs on social media in recent months, fight week has mostly been restrained, with Fury and Whyte complimentary towards each other at Wednesday's final press conference.
The good spirit continued at the staredown after the weigh-in, with Fury standing on his tip-toes to emphasise his height advantage -- at 206 centimetres (6 feet 9 inches) he is 13 centimetres taller than Whyte, who played along by ducking down.
Whyte, who moved to London as a child from Jamaica, was booed to the stage at a weigh-in open to the public at Wembley.
In contrast, Fury was given a hero's welcome, but the challenger offered his hand to his former sparring partner, which was accepted with smiles all round.
Fury and Whyte then swapped their caps before briefly dancing alongside one another on stage as they turned to face the crowd before another handshake.
Turning to face the fans, Fury said: "I'm so happy to be back here (in the UK) fighting at Wembley Stadium.
"Respect to Dillian Whyte and his team, proper professional men, and we're going to give you a real fight.
"Don't doubt us, we're going to put a show on like no other before. It's going to be a war, don't worry about that."
(H.Leroy--LPdF)
