Full transcript: Dillian Whyte on London Real
2:09 This is London Real, I am Brian Rose, my guest today is Dillian Whyte, the British professional heavyweight boxer with a career record of 26 wins, 18 by way of knockout and only one loss. You are currently ranked number three as a heavyweight boxer in the world, behind Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury and for over a thousand days you’ve been waiting for your chance to fight for a world title. You are currently in your final week of training camp before your upcoming fight with Alexander Povetkin, the dangerous former world champion and Olympic gold medalist.
2:43 A win should guarantee you a world title fight, against either Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder. Dillian, welcome to London Real. Thanks for having me, thank you. Hey, great to have you here. How are you feeling, champ?
2:57 I mean, and also what happens on the final week of training? Are you still sparring or are you just doing cardio or are you just kind of tapering down right now? No, I’m feeling sparring, I’m a little bit tired because obviously I’m training’s been hard. You know, I feel exactly I should feel a little bit tired, a little bit beat at the minute. You know, I obviously did my loss.
3:16 I finished sparring last week. It’s my last sort of like mid-intensity week and then it goes down. I just from, yes, I think Tuesday it’s just all short explosive stuff. No, I’m just staying sharp. You know, just managing the weight and stuff and just, you know, staying sharp, getting a sweat on, you know, working in the game plan, just finalizing everything, working my defense, you know, and throwing sharp punches and stuff.
3:41 And the same to blowing up my cardiovascular system, short explosively and just recovering now. So I think he’s recovering and tapering down now. Okay. Will your weight stay the same until fight or will it drop a little bit? Well, it depends.
3:57 Sometimes it’s a bit hard to say because obviously you have a set weight you’re meant to reach. Sometimes you get there and then you just dip a little bit under because of all the weeks and the intensity and metabolism. You know, train your metabolism to speed up and stuff. Sometimes you jump a little bit more or sometimes you just a little bit, a little bit more, a little bit less, you know, it depends. Okay.
4:18 And you’re down in Portugal. I mean, you, you had some kind of weird Spidey sense or something. You got, you got the hell out of Dodge when things started getting weird here, which kind of allowed you to do this training camp. Is that right? Yeah, you know, I got a good team of people.
4:32 I’m very observant. They keep an eye on everything and they keep an eye on everything. And we speak a lot and we figured out this might happen or that might happen. This could be a possibility. And then sometimes we just said, okay, you know what, just to be safe.
4:46 We have a private set up, but they were we can still train in case anything happened because my last fight, um, I had a lot of things going on and I put, I think I put a lot of weight on love, extra weight on, you know, um, and I put a lot of weight on. I put a lot of weight on love, extra weight on, you know, um, so winning the ring fight and I was way out of shape and stuff like that. So we were like, okay, regardless what happened. We need to get the weight down and trim some weight off and start moving again and get the minor mentality, right?
5:18 So we figured that, you know, we need to get a Dutch and just, um, just make sure, you know, we can actually train and, and, and train a good level. While all this is going on, we figured Portugal was the best option and the sake is option as well. Excellent, man. Uh, look, I want to talk about this fight coming up with Pavetkin because he’s a dangerous guy, but you know, this isn’t a boxing show and I know a little bit about watching you heavyweights, but when I look at the landscape of the top five guys in the world, I mean, is it me or are all these guys ducking you from Deontay to Tyson to Anthony Joshua?
5:54 It seems like they want nothing to do with you and I’m wondering why, why do you think that is? Are you dangerous? Are they worried? What’s your read on, on each one of these guys? I don’t know, man.
6:05 I don’t know. You know, I’m, I’m mind is challenging. I was mentioned to be into what I mentioned as a challenger, that’s a fury. These guys, they say a lot of negative things about me and I’m a plug. I’m slow.
6:17 This and that, but none of them don’t want to fight me. So I have no idea. You know, I’m not one that’s going to say it. So yeah, you know, I’m, I’m the, the, the, the next great coming since Muhammad Ali and all of that, you know, but one thing I can say is I can fight and I will fight and others come to fight. And these guys know this so they can say whatever they want about me and all this, but they know when I come, you know, I bring maximum violence.
6:44 How do you feel when someone like Deontay says that the king doesn’t go to see peasants or I know recently you said you left Tyson Fury crying in the ring when you spar with them. And there’s rumors. Anthony Josh was going to jump into the ring after your fight next Saturday. I mean, how do you feel when you hear things like this? My mind says whatever one it can get, you know, that’s my mind.
7:05 If I just want to jump in the ring when I fight, then he might get it there. And then, you know, I don’t know what’s going to go through my mind there. And then, you know, I don’t particularly like that guy said if he gets in my face, then, you know, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll smack the, the, the, the, the asset of him straight away. But, you know, me and Tyson Fury, we did a lot of sparring. There’s days when he had these good days and he didn’t have my good days.
7:31 And he knows that as well. He knows that I can hurt him and I carry the power to hurt him. He knows I like to all get the body. And that’s one of Tyson Fury’s weakest areas. As you can see, he gets up from the headshots and he moves his head, but he doesn’t do well with the body shots.
7:44 So he knows that. And for Deontay, what can I say? He’s just, he’s just an embarrassment, man. He’s just an embarrassment, you know. He wears a black history costume for black history month and then he lose and then he blames the black history costume for being too heavy.
8:00 That’s why he lost. Wore his legs out walking 40 meters from the change room to the ring. Wore his legs out. It’s crazy. He’s just, it’s actually crazy.
8:14 It’s crazy when you think about it. Okay. The 40 pound costume wears your legs out. You’re 230 pounds. It’s crazy.
8:22 Do you have any respect for Deontay and, you know, some of those KOs that he puts together? No, I don’t have no respect for Deontay. I’ve no, you know, obviously the guy’s got power and obviously he can knock people out and stuff, but he’s just what he is. He’s just, you know, I ain’t got no respect for him. You know, you know, even if I did have respect for him, I lost respect for him for the way that he behaved as a WBC World Champion.
8:46 You know, avoiding Manchester’s challenger and just making excuses, excuse after excuses, and as you can see from his loss, few fights. The guy is, you know, he’s just, a lot of it is hype, you know, a lot of it is hype. A lot of the people who knocked out those, they beat him all around the ring, but obviously, you know, you knock him out. So credit where he’s due, but the guy is terrible. And our ball is said, if you fight the end of the world and back him up and put him in the back foot, you knock him out.
9:16 And that’s exactly what you did. But I’ve been saying that for like two, three years. Hmm. Were you surprised how that last fight played out between Deontay and Tyson? Not really.
9:26 I wasn’t surprised because I was, I said it from a long time ago, you know, and then he was fighting someone just as big as him, just as tall as him, but heavier than him. And someone who, who actually take the fight to him, you know, and someone who he’s not done last time and they cut up and still beat him. Being for the rest of the 12th round after having knocked down. So I know Tyson Fury had no fear for him. Obviously, Tyson Fury figured, okay, if he can’t learn the right hand, there’s nothing else he can do.
9:55 Literally, there’s nothing else he can do apart from, from, from ball that right hand over. There’s nothing else he can do. What’s going to happen on Deontay, Tyson 3, in your opinion? I don’t know. I don’t want to see it to be honest.
10:10 I have no interest in that fight. You know, I don’t think anyone’s getting interested in that fight. I think it’s just a fight where it’s just happening because of contracts, really. I don’t think it’s happening for no other reason, because I believe it doesn’t be beaten twice. Yeah.
10:25 You said before that the only reason Tyson Fury didn’t stay down in the first fight is because as you say, Deontay never hit him to the body. And that gave him the strength to get up after that, you know, pretty hard hit. So you would, you would fight Tyson differently based on that. Right. You know, that isn’t different.
10:43 You’re jabbing more. I throw more jabs. That’s very easy jab against him. Obviously, it’s all a fight. People will laugh at that when they say that.
10:50 They’re easy jab and target his body because if you hit him in the head, obviously you can knock him out by shows you can get from the head shots. But the body shots is what wears him down and what will take his legs and his wheel away from him. And everyone can be tough to the head. But once they start chipping some meat downstairs, you know, these guys all break down, you know, don’t break down. So say these guys are fighting again.
11:16 Say Tyson gets the win. That means you’ll fight Tyson Fury next year if you win on on Saturday, right? One will hope so. But Tyson Fury doesn’t seem to want to fight me as always. No, he’s making all the same excuse.
11:29 The entire world is making promote is making excuse and saying, Oh, we don’t want to dealing with fire and stuff. And, you know, it’s just a lot of garbage. Just like it’s like from one garbage to another garbage to be honest, it’s just it’s terrible. How do you deal with that frustration, Dylan? Man, you know, just the hope of Tyson Fury won’t be a coward and vacate the belt and actually fight me over proper fight for the belt.
11:56 You know, I don’t want to work so hard and end up being a champion of a vacant belt. You know, I want one of the issues is a great fighting in the rural and whatever. I want to fight him on a fight. The best people. I want to be the best people.
12:09 You know, I just hope he won’t be a coward. But he says a fighting man and he’s a gypsy king. So I thought it would be a coward. I think he’ll fight me. So let’s see what happens.
12:19 If you don’t fight me, then he should be known as a gypsy coward forever. Have you called him that before? I think I haven’t heard. Yeah, of course. He’s I mean, he doesn’t seem like the guy that if it’s now plain as day that you have to fight that that could publicly just keep ducking you.
12:35 It seems like with his persona, he would ultimately be like, okay, we got to do this. But I guess we’ll see. Right. A lot of things seem one way, but in reality, it’s another way. You know, he knows.
12:47 He knows. Obviously, it’s a lot of challenging fighting. But he knows. He knows what I will bring. He knows.
12:53 He knows. You know, and these guys say, listen, but he knows what I’ll bring. He knows. You know, because realistically, you know, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t fight me. They say, well, that’s injured.
13:02 There’s no reason I get through this fight. He should have fight me in December.
13:09 What you mentioned Anthony Joshua earlier. Now you guys, you know, you used to have some respect for each other. I saw you in an interview a couple of years ago and you’re like, we respect each other. Obviously, you had that really early fight when you guys were young where you won. But it sounds like that respect isn’t there anymore.
13:26 You know, I respect when you lost on the rules. I supported a guy who’s been a fellow British fighter. And then after the fight, he just started talking a lot of crap and acting like he’s a bad man and stuff and saying all of these things and stuff. And, you know, like, come on, man, you know, and then they lied and they tried to make the fight with me when it was a lie. We’re both maturing fighters.
13:47 You wanted to make a fight with me. The fight’s easy to make. If you’re realistic, everyone knows me. I don’t hide from no one. Why would I turn it off with the fight?
13:54 Anthony Joshua, if there’s an offer date. All people didn’t even think about it. There was never any real offer. They wanted him to fight during Miller in America. That was the plan because the zone needed to recoup some of that money back there.
14:05 They’re paying him and stuff like that. And they tried to use me a scapegoat. I tried to make me look bad. So I’m just like, I’ve had enough of this. You know, I want to go.
14:13 I’ve already said I’ll fight and winner takes all, you know, I’ll fight and winner takes all. That’s what we do. We ease and suggest to the great whatever. I’m just dealing with the normal guy. Let’s fight winner takes all.
14:26 How about that? Why do you put the winner takes all in there? Because you’re not motivated by money, are you, at the end of the day? I mean, that’s not, I want to fight the best and beat the best, man. That’s it.
14:38 You know, when it’s all said and done and over, time’s flying. Time waiting for no one, you know, we are getting on, you know, strange things up in the world every day. I just want to fight the best. I just want to fight the best. When I’m older, I want to sit down and be like, yo, you know what?
14:53 I fought him, I fought him, I fought him. A lot of these guys, when they retire, it’s like, oh, like, like, Ray Jones didn’t fight Joe Kazaki till he was such and such. Joe Kazaki didn’t fight Karl Fruch till he was such and such. Bring it up. I don’t want to be like that, you know?
15:08 I want to be the guy, you know, I fought everyone. Why we were still good fighters and good contenders in our prime, you know? Does these times of COVID make you think that even more? Like, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You got to make hay while the sun shines.
15:23 You got to make things happen now because, like you said, you don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Man, I think this times of COVID has done a lot for, you know, it’s got a lot of people scared and it’s also motivated a lot of people as well. So, you know, it just shows. It’s another thing in life that shows you that, you know, we take things for granted, small things, like being able to go to the boxing, like being able to walk around the supermarket, you know?
15:51 Just shows, you know, taking it for granted. When you’re like, no, you go to the supermarket, there’s a massive queue outside. You got to stand up and wait. You got to, you know, like you can’t go to the boxing. You can’t, you know, like we used to take for granted.
16:03 Oh, yeah. His boxing this weekend. I’m not going to that. It’s not a great show or oh, yeah, yeah, whatever. So-and-so is fine.
16:10 I don’t care. Now, I wish those are my boxing event I could just go to just to chill out, you know, our sporting event, you know, just teaching us to take nothing for granted and just to, you know, and that’s what these guys need to realize. We all in our prime. Me, Anthony Joshua, De’Anthea, we cannot fight each other three or four times each or whatever, you know? We can just make a massive, you know, the top four heavyweights going for it.
16:36 What’s wrong with that? You know, so what? We lose the draw. So what? Let me ask you a question about Anthony Joshua.
16:44 And I spoke to someone today and I said, I’m talking to Dillian tonight. And I’ll tell you who I spoke to who just after this. And I said, what should I ask him? And he said, he said, Brian, I want you to ask him this question. He said, let’s say you’re back in 2015 again, and it’s a week before the Anthony Joshua fight and you wake up in the morning and you realize you got one arm.
17:08 Your other arm’s not working, right? You got one arm that you can fight this guy with. You got two choices. Do you power through like a warrior and go in that ring like you did? Or do you postpone that fight and wait six months to where you can rehab it and then go in there?
17:25 What would you do? I would go in. I would go in, you know, because I know I’m sure she’s a good fighter, but I know at the time he had vulnerabilities as did I at the time. And one of those vulnerabilities was to any frozen right hand. When he retracts it, he doesn’t answer the phone.
17:41 As they say, he throws it and he comes back low because he he overloads in the right hand. And my chance was to come up with it with it with it with it. Check your foot. And that’s what I did. But unfortunately for me, it completely shattered my shoulder joint because my shoulder joint was already halfway finished.
17:57 But I know going to fight and I’m a warrior. I’m a person that I was still going there. I just fight harder earlier. I just gone for a bit earlier. What happens again if you’re in the ring with Joshua?
18:10 How does that play out? It would be a lot different this time. I believe I can beat him. I believe I could beat him last time and I was close to beating. I’m much more polished.
18:19 I have much more skill. I’m in better shape. Thank God I’m touch wood. I’m injury free at the moment and stuff like that. Training better, living better, better quality of life.
18:31 And also, I’ve got more things at my disposal now because everything is level. You go up in level. You meet better people. You meet better doctors. You meet better physios.
18:39 You meet better training people and better strength and conditioning people. You’re overall life becomes better because you have more access to better nutrition and other things like that. It would be a different story. It would be a different story. Okay.
18:53 You know who asked me that question? You want to know? Go on. It was David Hay. He asked me that question.
18:59 Good old David. He’s an old friend of mine. We used to share a gym back in the day. So I still got some love for David. So I hope you guys are still cool.
19:08 David’s cool people. I used to spar with David before. I got into the box room with anyone else. It was the first people who got into the box room. And I was like, nobody, you know.
19:17 And he was on top of his game then. Yeah. That’s cool, man. All right. I’ll send him some love from you, man.
19:24 What about, so we round out those top ranks. What about Chisora? Is that something that would ever happen a third time? And also, you know, what’s it like when he throws that right hand at you? And what’s it like when he throws that conference desk at you?
19:40 It’s just a child showing a tantrum, really. He just does, you know. He tries to intimidate people. He’s a bit of a bully. He tries to intimidate people.
19:52 And he tries to act crazy and stuff and try to freak people out. But like all of what he’s doing, I’ve seen it before. I’ve had people throw a table at me. I’ve had people come up here with knives, with guns. It’s just so, you know, like I live a real life, you know.
20:07 I live a real life where I’ve been doing these things since I was a child, not in my adult life. Like, you know, I was doing these things when I was like 13, 15, 14, 16, you know. So for me, it was like, you know, throwing a table in a press conference because you’re trying to seem like you’re a bad man or a fuck, but I know you’re not, you know. I know you’re not because you don’t throw a table at someone and run towards security. You throw a table, you run behind the table towards the person, you know.
20:36 So, you know, but this is Derek. He tries to be crazy and try to act crazy and try to freak people out. Obviously, he’s a big guy and people think, ah, you know what, I’ll just leave it alone because he, you know, he gave me a bit of a nightmare. But, you know, like I say, I’m the camera man. Whoever won it can get it.
20:55 Simple as that, you know. I’m not a troublemaker. I don’t go around starting trouble. I’m not a bully. But if you step to me, then I’m ready to go.
21:06 Okay. What about Ruiz? Do you think we’ll ever see him back in fighting for him? Um, it depends. He’s going to get on a plane to fly somewhere and there’s a lot of sweet shops in the airport.
21:19 He might not make it to the destination, you know. And let’s say this, like, just have a close tunnel that he just walks straight into where he’s going and that’s it, you know. What happens there? I mean, is that a mentality where someone just sabotages themselves? Do you think he never thought he deserved it?
21:37 Or did he just get caught up being the champ and forgot to train? I mean, how do you forget to train? You know what? Sometimes when you come from nothing and when you work hard and you grow up hard for stuff and it comes slowly and you have to continuously graph and work and take risks, you can still blow it. You can still blow it.
21:56 But sometimes you’re a bit more realistic and you think, you know what, my journey to here has been, you know, it makes you a bit more responsible. But Ruiz was just, he was his kennel fighter. You know, it was kennel fighter. It was just nobody took a chance. You know, Joshua had him beat 100 million times in his head.
22:18 There’s no way in history could have loosed. And he went in there and knocked him out and he just got to his head. He just got to his head. Instead of training, he was out buying cars, buying jewelry, doing crazy stuff. I’m like, dude, you have all the belts at once.
22:32 Like, yo, if you can’t motivate yourself to train for the rematch for someone who just knocked out, then like, you’re never going to motivate yourself ever again. It don’t matter what you say, oh, now you realize this and you realize that. And then also the first thing you did was fire his trainer as well, which is, dude, it’s not your trainer’s fault. It’s not your trainer’s job to get into the gym. Your job is to get your training once you get to the gym.
22:59 You’re a grown man. You’re not his son. You’re not on the contracting. Your job is to shortcut you to the gym. Your trainer will train you.
23:06 Your trainer gets in shape. It’s the same trainer that got you ready to be just for us. And all of a sudden, you’re going to leave Manny Robles blaming him. No, I think Manny Robles is a fantastic trainer. Let’s talk about you, man.
23:18 You’re the kind of guy that doesn’t flinch when a desk is flying at your head. You know, you’re 32 years old, but you seem kind of old school, Dillian. Like, you seem like, you know, like that old school dude, you know. Is that because you think you grew up in Jamaica? Is that because you saw some tough times in Brixton?
23:35 You know, is it, you know, obviously, you just seem like a different guy than as opposed to some of these guys that are like career fighters. Do you know what I mean? Why is that? You know, you know, man, you know, I say this all the time. People don’t get it, man.
23:49 People think, Oh, yeah, I’m just, I’m just so surprised and so grateful to still be alive, man. And still, I’m being free, not being prison. And then a plus, a bonus is the fact that I’m doing something good. I’m not robbing or selling drugs or checked up in prison. I strung out and drugs are just saying, you know, just killing myself to find day to day expensive.
24:16 You know, I mean, I was glad that I’m in a position in my life. I mean, saying people, motivating people. I know I’ve wrecked my way to like top three box in the world. I’m just so grateful and so privileged. But like I said, you know, I thought I’d have been dead by early twenties.
24:34 I just been in prison because that’s the last of those live. And that’s the lifestyle that was this ball up on me as well. You know, I mean, obviously, people be like, Oh, yeah, you know, this guy, the way he is and where he comes from and stuff like that. I ain’t going to make it. He’s going to, you know, loads of trainers, loads of trainers.
24:50 Now when I say box and say, I ain’t going to make it. He’s got too much attitude. He’s to this, he’s to that. He’s to street. He’s to loads of guys, you know, loads of guys.
24:59 And they’re the same guys that come up to me now and like, Oh, well done. You did something like, yo, I remember you heard what you said. Are, you know, so for me, I’m just grateful, man. I’m grateful. You know, I’m grateful on my life.
25:12 I made it to where I want to I want to get to you. You know, I’m far before when I get to I’m still learning. I’m still improving. You know, I’m just grateful. You know, mom, my mom told me she’s proud of me, you know, because she knows my story.
25:25 What been from where I come from. For me, that’s something like, you know, I never had my father around and anything like that. You know, I try to, you know, I make sure I’m around for my kids and stuff. You know, man, it’s, you know, even though they’re talking about it, it’s like it’s crazy, you know, because all this stuff I’m talking about. It’s not like I was, I was a kid doing some crazy stuff just to survive.
25:49 Not because not because I wanted to be cool or follow or whatever, you know, just, you know, I was doing what I had to do, you know, I was a father very early. So I had to go to my son and stuff. And, you know, my mom had 12 kids. I used to have, you know, I’m trying to find stuff and trying to help out around the house and stuff. I’m trying to make it, you know, man, it’s crazy.
26:13 It’s crazy. It’s crazy, you know, pay bills when I was, when I was like 13, I was like, yo, you know, here you go. You know, it’s crazy, man. Why do you think you made it? Like, what was it?
26:26 Was it your mom? Was it the fact that you were a father at 13 and you had maybe more reasons than the other 13-year-olds to do something with your life? Was it growing up in Jamaica and appreciating Brixton? Or what was it? I don’t know, man.
26:42 There’s so much things I can say why, you know. So much things. It’s my last time upbringing my team around me. I got incredible team around me. And one thing, I draw good people and good energy towards me as well.
26:56 So, you know, there’s some people around that do so much for me every day. Sometimes I sit down and think to myself, well, do I even deserve these people, you know, that just, you know, like, I’ve got some incredible people around me, man, you know. I just can’t believe that someone like me have these people around me looking out for me and taking care of me and people with planning and strategizing for me and helping me. It’s crazy, man. It’s crazy.
27:24 Like, when, you know, I haven’t thought about this a long time, but no, I’m just thinking about it. And it’s like, makes me sad at the same time as well as it makes me happy as well, man, you know. It’s like, it’s crazy that these people believe in me. And it’s crazy, man. Why does that make you sad?
27:43 Because, you know, it just makes me like, you know, it’s made me sad. Like, if I had a good, I’d bring in a good future and I had people early around me and, you know, I had the school and I had the teaching and the guidance. What would I be? Where would I be? And if I had my parents at the finance to send me to the gym and stuff like that, one of the kids are, you know, one of my family did any sport.
28:08 My dad and granddad boxed Bayknock when I was young and didn’t tell me because their knowledge of sport was it was a fog sport back then it was sportful of gangster and stuff and whatever. So they didn’t tell me. So imagine if I had the support and, you know, like now you send your kids to school, your kids probably do extra lessons in sports. And I never had any of that, man. I was like, I was a right off from I was born really, you know, sad as is sad as it is.
28:36 I was just, it just, you know, it just makes me sad to think if I had a chance in life, what would I have done, man? Because I’ve done all this with no chance in life. No, you know, I’ve been climbing a wall smothered the bottom my whole life, man. Yeah, you ever think that’s maybe why you’re there? Because you did it and you earned it and you feel like you deserve it, you know, I don’t know, man.
28:59 I, you know, I don’t, I don’t think of myself like that. I don’t think of myself anything special. I just, I don’t know, man, you know, sometimes these hard people say, why do you say that? I said, I don’t know. I don’t think like, you know, you know, some people like, oh yeah, deserve this.
29:13 Or I don’t think that, man. I just, I’m privileged, man. I’m just, I’m just so grateful, man. I’m so grateful. Tell me, what part of Jamaica is in you?
29:26 Like, what part of that island is in Dillian Whyte? You know, what are the characteristics of you that come from there? What do you remember from there? Like, I’ve never been, but it looks like a hard place to grow up, but also a lot of culture and a lot of history, you know? You know, the whole of the island is in me, man.
29:43 You know, the whole of it is in me, you know, that’s like the UK and an island, the whole of this place is in me, you know, obviously, because my family was Irish and someone’s Jamaican, so that was a crazy mix. It’s two quite highly volatile race of people, you know, as well. So it’s crazy, you know, we had some teachings from that side as I’m teaching on the Jamaican side, so it was crazy, man. It was, you know, it’s a great, it’s a nice place, very nice place, you know, very nice place, good weather, good food, very, a lot of culture, different people, different mindset, and so different religions and stuff like that, you know, the diversity of people there is crazy, you know, so many different people there.
30:30 It’s like I was saying to someone earlier today, when I grew up in Jamaica, I didn’t know it was black, I didn’t know my Chinese neighbors was Chinese, so I never knew this guy was white. We was just Jamaicans. He was like, yo, you know, it’s crazy, man. Jamaica is a nice place, but it’s also a very dangerous place, as well. It’s a very, very dangerous place.
30:51 It’s a place where, if you grew up with no family as a kid, it’s easy to get into gangs, it’s easy for people to, they usually just shop around drugs and to do stuff, and it’s easy for you to get killed and go missing like that. There’s people I know that growing up, they got, they went missing, and we never saw them again, you know, people, it was crazy. It was, it was, it’s crazy, man. I remember like the first time I saw a dead body as well, it was like about six, like about eight or nine or something, because it’s crazy, man.
31:20 What do you think of these kids these days, Dillian, that grow up with their mobile phones and, you know, everything’s politically correct, and then you think about your childhood where friends go missing. I mean, do you think kids these days have it too easy, or is that just something old men say? No, I just think it’s cool. I think, I wish I had all this stuff when I was growing up. I think, I think it’s cool.
31:42 I think balance is key, you know, I think balance is key. What a lot of people do, in my community, they send a lot of their kids back home to go school for a year in Jamaica, six months in Jamaica, six months in Africa, or six months in Ireland, or wherever they send them back home so they can see, you know, and I think that’s a good thing to do if you have access to that. It’s good to teach the kids the history as well, and for them to understand what things are like.
32:11 Things, because a lot of people, they work hard and they get successful and then they just spoil their kids. It’s like, oh yeah, you know, so, but different times, when different times, you know, now we got to, we got to move forward at a time, you know, obviously like, like my young son, he can use the phone and the iPad and the computer way better than I can. I’m like, yo, you’re like nine years old. How do you, how do you know to do these things? Like, I call my son, I’m like, yeah, I want to send an email to this guy but I need to pin this to it and do that and he’s like, oh, that’s easy.
32:46 And I’m just thinking, shut up. It’s crazy. So, say in a way, there’s a lot of positive and there’s a lot of negative as well because when I was growing up, we was outside a lot. We was outside running around, going to the park, doing this, hanging in the street, but that also brought other troubles as well. You know, at least your kid might be at home playing PlayStation or whatever, but you know where he is.
33:06 You know, yo, he’s upstairs in his room. You know where that is there. You know, with me, my mom didn’t know where I was for two, three, four days at a time. You know, you know, it’s crazy. Yeah.
33:18 No, go out and just not come back. I’ll go out and I went out and got shot and didn’t come back for like three weeks. That’s crazy, man. It really is crazy. Yeah, you mentioned like the young people, like if there’s young fighters watching us right now, maybe 16 or 17 and they’re coming up, you know, they got the skills.
33:36 What’s some advice you would give to them? I mean, you mentioned surrounding yourself with good people, but like what are the big mistakes young fighters make when they’re in the game and what advice do you give to them? They take it for granted. Oh, I’m young. Oh, I can go out and party and drink and I don’t need to train or I don’t need to do.
33:53 Man, like, just try and stay disciplined, try and surround yourself with good people. But it’s also hard because he didn’t mean to say, try and surround yourself with good people. It’s hard to know who is good people. It’s hard to know who is landing. It’s hard to know who just wants to use you.
34:09 It’s very difficult. It’s very difficult. What to say to these kids, man, it is. You know, it’s so difficult, man, because you don’t know what’s going up and you don’t know what’s going to go. You don’t know if you’re going to have the right people.
34:27 It’s crazy, man. It’s crazy. Yeah. All right. So talk to me about this fight coming up.
34:32 It’s probably the strangest fight you’ve ever had. Maybe, you know, there are going to be fewer people there than maybe at your first Joshua fight, you know, and I’ve seen that old tape, you know. But, you know, we’ve seen Dana Whyte in the UFC, put these fights on when there’s nobody in the crowds, right? And you can hear like echoes and you actually can hear the body shots and they slap and stuff and you can hear the announcers. The fighters can hear the announcers.
34:57 It’s crazy. So what are you expecting from this bout, which is going to be in what I understand, Eddie Hearn’s backyard, right? By the way, I haven’t got an invite yet, so I’m not happy about that. But what do you expect to bring? Are you worried about the weather?
35:13 Are you worried about the crowd not being there? Weird energy, COVID tests. Tell me. You know, I just had another COVID test yesterday. So I’m all good.
35:22 When I get back to England, I’ve got to have another one. That’s all came back all fine. I would never want to go to England. So I’m worried about that. You know, we kept ourselves good and obviously kept my immune system up and everything good.
35:34 So I’m not too worried about that. But, you know, it’s going to be strange. You know, it’s going to be strange because for me, I’ve had fights in the big shows. I’ve had outdoor fights where, you know, Lanesadia, it was raining. My shoes was wet when I got to the ring.
35:53 I had to wear paper bags and plastic bags on my feet to the ring, you know. I had to do things. So for me, I think I’ve had, from the way my career is, I fought in front of 500 people, fought in front of 2,000, 3,000, all the way up to 70,000, whatever 1,000 it was in Cardiff. So I’ve had, I went to, I remember I fought Derek Sizzora co-main event in front of 40,000 people in Manchester. I went to America.
36:20 I fought in front of 300 people, the first fight on the card, the first fight on the card. So, you know what I mean? I’ve had the different stages in my career. So I think I’ll be all right. And some of the hardest fights I’ve had, the most dangerous fights I’ve had has been in the gym sparring with three or four guys coming in doing two rounds in, two rounds out and giving me work, beating, beating me down.
36:41 So for me, it’s just going to be, that’s my mindset in getting this fight. But I’m expecting a very dangerous, very solid, strong, aggressive, perfect kid. Obviously he knows if he beats me, he goes from being that guy to the guy, you know? His value goes up, but you know, I’m expecting to be ready and to be strong and focused and stuff. So when the bell goes, it’s going to be, it’s going to be like it’s, it’s in front of thousands of people, you know, because I’m just going to be focusing on him and I’ll be switched on and I’m just going to focus and seek and destroy.
37:17 So I don’t think it might, whether it is 100,000 people, there are 100 people, one people and no people. Yeah. Do you usually draw energy from the crowd? I mean, or not really. I mean, you don’t seem like the guy that needs the adoration of the crowds.
37:33 Like that doesn’t seem like you. I could think of a few fighters that love it, but that doesn’t seem like you. Sometimes the crowd’s against me anyway. So, but some people get energy from that too, being the bad guy, right? Or maybe not.
37:46 Yeah, yeah, you know, I’m used to being the bad guy and the underdog. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m not the underdog going into this one again. So for me, you know what, man? I’m a survivor and I’m very adaptable. One of my biggest strengths is being adaptable.
38:00 I adapt to every situation. I get put in, you know, wherever I want to and I decide to say, you know what it is? I’m going to get on with it. You know, and my old team is like, and that’s the mindset and that’s the energy, you know what I mean? So, you know, wherever we are a good start and not we’re going to finish strong regardless.
38:17 So that’s done. That’s send me, that’s timing in great stead, you know, preparation for this and for whatever else I do with my career, you know. You both got left hooks coming into this fight. How does this thing play out in an ideal scenario? How many rounds?
38:33 What does it look like you think? Man, you know, I trained for 12 rounds. I know we’re talking about a guy that’s won everything, every single thing all the way up from the lowest level of damages to the highest level of damage. Olympic gold medalist, you know, multiple trophies and tournament win and all the way up from pro debut to real title. I ain’t fought for a full version of real title yet, you know, I’m WBC interim real champion.
39:03 So his experience is crazy, you know, his experience is crazy but, you know, I said him to be sharp and to be motivated and to be shaping is one is going to look like he stays in shape all year round. I wouldn’t be surprised if he probably comes in about 16 stone three six and stone four, you know, I’m assessing to be sharp. He’s got short arms and full shot punches probably the best fight I’ve fought technically and stuff, you know, but it’s my time and we see a way to cope to the maximum violence round after round.
39:37 A lot of people say you shouldn’t take this fight. Why take it? Because I ain’t scared. I ain’t scared to get like most people when you know, a lot of people is scared and they don’t want to take chances and they’re worried about this word about that. I might go to sleep on the wake up tomorrow.
39:53 So, you know, that’s my mindset in life, man, make hay where the sun shines. Amen to that. How much does the world need a proper boxing match right now? I mean, man, you know, seriously, are you thinking about that? This is one of the reasons why we wanted to do this is because I couldn’t wait till September, October time and just be like, oh, I’ll wait for the crowds to come back and stuff like that.
40:19 But, you know, you know, one of the main motivation for me was my mom was a nurse. My mom’s old. My mom’s old, you know, I say to a yo like, you know, come out to Portugal and stay out here with me and just be safe. And she goes, no, you know, as a nurse, I’ve got a duty to do, you know, and there’s a lot of old people that come out of hospitals that have operations and need medicine and change and they can’t. No one is helping them.
40:44 They’re just leaving them because there’s stuff going on in the hospital or whatever the mom said. Listen, I’m going to do my job. And when she said that some way, they said, I’m thinking to myself, you know what? She’s showing us bravery. I need to do my job as well.
40:59 I need to, you know, I need to do my job and be brave and get on with it and don’t just sit around and wait and think, I’m moped, you know what I mean? So to me, that was a motivation for me when she said that. So I was like, cool, you know what? Let’s do this. Let’s get in on.
41:14 I love that, man. We all got to do our job. I felt the same way the last few months. I got to do my job too. We need everybody.
41:19 We need the nurses, the broadcasters, the boxers, right? We need everyone because everyone saw a count and everyone, you know what I mean? You don’t know what you do to motivate people. I don’t know what I do to motivate people. We just been waking up and just posting a video of me going to the gym.
41:35 Whatever. Me trying to eat healthier. Anything can motivate someone, man. So we just got to do what we got to do. When we got to do it, you know?
41:45 Yeah. Look, we saw the UFC putting these fights on and entertaining people. And for me, it was a real breath of fresh air. What’s the chance of you getting in the octagon with Francis Ngano and giving him that high kick to the head that you still got in your back pocket? No chance.
41:59 Francis Ngano don’t want no smoking alone. People will say to me, yo, what’s wrong with you? You’re a world with everyone. I’m not a world with everyone. I just want to fight the best fighters, man.
42:11 That’s all I want to do, you know? I’m confident enough to compete across the sport whether it’s kickboxing, MMA, boxing. Why not do it? I was trying to be the guy that done something that no one else has done. What reigning champion, what reigning champion already, you know, I fight Steve A. Miyochis and Francis Ngano.
42:30 I’ll fight any one of them, you know? Any one of those guys, I’ll fight. Any one of those guys, you know, and then imagine winning a UFC heavyweight title and coming back and winning the boxing heavyweight title at the same time. No one’s ever done that. That’d be epic.
42:43 How’s your wrestling jujitsu? My wrestling is not bad. My wrestling is not bad. It’s not bad. It’s actually better than I thought it was, actually.
42:54 What about your submission skills? No, I’m more. I’m more of a ground and pound man, man. I like to get it. Get it done.
43:02 You know, I can stop me. I can put up a hamburger when I could choke or I am a guillotine, you know, or something that crucifixes or something like that. But but, you know, I like to strike, man. I like to strike. I like what I like to strike and I like to defend the takedown.
43:17 You know, I think if you can strike and defend the takedown and like Chuck Liddell, he rained for years with just the takedown defense. Yeah. Yeah. And he was a wrestler and he just struck is what he did. Yeah, because he knew if he box, they want to try and take him down.
43:33 And then the way and the way to take him down, he could always kind of punch him. And that’s what he did. They tried to step back and it’s, you know, but it’s easier said than done. Yeah, it is easier said than done. Well, I got a program on jiu-jitsu.
43:46 So if you want to come train with me, man, I’ll show you some skills. That’s cool. That’s cool. But, you know, you’re right. We got Cormier Stipe this weekend and, you know, Cormier is an Olympic wrestler, but he keeps it on the feet striking.
43:58 So, man, you would be great with one of those guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, I got nothing to respect for both of those guys. Stipe and Cormier, you know, it’s one a piece. It’s a very interesting fight, intriguing fight. One that I will be watching when I’ve seen goals.
44:16 It’s a good fight, man. I’m trying to think who’s going to win. He’s going to win. But it’s crazy because the first time Stipe made a lot of mistakes and he got knocked out. The second fight, DC was fighting good and then he started making silly mistakes and then he got knocked out.
44:31 Weird. DC just comes forward. He just doesn’t care. He just comes forward and he just takes shots and then he just got, you know, he missed one. He needs to be a bit smarter.
44:40 He’s a bit older now, you know, he’s a bit older now, you know, but he looks in great shape. I saw an interview with him two days ago and he looked, he looks good. He looked that probably, he looked really good. He looks really healthy. But, you know, Stipe is in a common shape.
44:54 Tough guy, good striker. So, let’s see. You know, not many boxers can actually switch over. It’s true. I mean, a lot of boxers talk, talk smack.
45:04 Mayweather said, Oh, I’m going to go in MMA. But, you know, he’s not gonna. You’re, you’re the only guy I know that could actually make that switch. So, that’s why I don’t understand why they’re putting Tyson Fury and then to adjust on the next UFC game. And none of them, none of them would never fight in the cage.
45:19 None of them would never ever fight in there to go. None of them, I don’t know why they’re putting them too and not putting me in it. None of them were ever fighting the act again. And I’m serious about fighting the act again. You know, if Dana wants I’ll get in there.
45:31 I’ll fight Stipe and Miotis next up if he beats Komei. I’ll fight Komei if Komei beats Miotis. Yeah, Tyson Fury posted a video he threw a few knees and that was like his MMA debut. The real sneeze I’ve ever seen. The real sneeze.
45:46 The real sneeze I’ve ever seen look like a giraffe of three knees. All right. I’m gonna text Dana Whyte after we’re done here and see what I can do. A question for you. How long are you going to do this?
45:57 You know, you’re 32 now and you see Mike Tyson making a comeback at 53. What do you make of that? And then how long are you going to do this? Man, I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on in Mike’s life and why does he feel he needs to.
46:16 You never know what’s going on people’s life. People get bored. People retire. You haven’t got the same research. You have the same the same the buzzes finish other things.
46:28 I don’t know what’s going on in people’s life, man. So I can’t say but I don’t think he should he should come back to me. Okay, if he comes back I can have an exhibition fight for Roy Jones. Cool. It’s an exhibition fight.
46:37 They make a lot of money. You know, whatever. You know, he shines a bit of light a bit of excitement in his life but boxing is like a drug, you know. And Mike is one of those kind of controversially crazy guys that he’ll come back and fight Roy Jones if he win he’ll think oh yeah I can beat the heavyweight champion of the world. Then he goes in there and gets smashed, you know.
46:57 And then he’s just like he was always old what is this? No, he shouldn’t have come back. You’re a legend. You’re a living legend. We haven’t got a lot of living legends left, man.
47:06 Just like let the young guys shine in their prime, man. Let, you know, but if he comes back I’ll fight him, I don’t care. You know, I’ll fight him. I mean, I think people forgot his last three or four fights. I remember him.
47:18 It was not nice watching him fight those. It was horrible. He was pathetic. Like, you know, the way that it’s crazy. Yeah, but I mean, if you said if he wants to do it, God bless.
47:31 Yes, I’ll be watching. I’ll definitely be watching. I’ll definitely be watching. Mike Tyson, for God’s sake. Yeah.
47:36 Let me ask you a couple final questions, Deleon. If you close your eyes and you visualize the next 24 months of your life, the next two years, and it goes exactly how you want it to go. What are those two years look like to you? What are the things that you want to knock off on those milestones that makes it the best two years of your life? Undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
47:56 Who next? It’s Undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Being Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury. In a while, I would love to fight him because of what he done to me and obviously just a piece of so and so. I’m picking off a few of the young prospects that’s coming up because they’ll be mandatory.
48:16 You know, and I’m just retiring as Undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, man. You know, the same. Have a good stable of fires that I manage and just. You know, just just just relax and just maybe you know, I might even become a trainer at some point and start training some guys who knows who knows. So Fury Fury first, then maybe Joshua, then maybe Deontay, and then whoever else wants a piece.
48:43 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not quite the UFC heavyweight champion in the middle of somewhere as well.
48:49 Dylan, what’s a couple questions about you? What was the best day of your life and the worst day of your life? If you really think about those highlights and lowlights, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Best day of my life was having children and the rest of my life was my mom leaving me. You know, that’s it, man.
49:06 She left me because she had no choice. She had to go somewhere. I’m trying to make a better life for us because the way she was, she was struggling, you know. So she left me in family and friends thinking don’t take care of me, but they didn’t. But that’s life and the best day of my life was having children and knowing that, you know, I’ll be able to look after them, man.
49:30 Yeah, yeah. What scares you? What scares me?
49:39 Someone doing something to my dogs. Not your kids, your dogs. Yeah, my dogs, you know, kids grow up and they leave and they get angry at you and they, you know, they get angry at you. They hold things against you. They, you know, your dogs is there every day, man.
49:58 Your dog says, you know, so I can tell my dog for doing something. I lock him outside, open the door and he’s at the door so excited to see you. Just like that. I’m sorry. What did I do wrong?
50:09 What did I do wrong? You know, you know, and they’re loyal, man. They’re loyal and such, you know, yeah, such. And a couple more questions. If I were to ask five of your closest friends, you know, what is Dillian’s superpower?
50:23 How does this man accomplish everything he accomplishes? What are some of the things they would they would tell you or tell me? Like, what would they say? What is the thing about you that allows you to be where you are today? They probably say he’s annoying, he’s wild, he’s stubborn and very determined.
50:42 I’m very strong-headed. And what else can I say? But he’s a very loyal guy and he wanted to be there when he needed. Okay. All right, last one.
50:54 If you could pick up a phone and call up the 20-year-old Dillian Whyte and give that young man some advice based on everything you know now, what would you tell him? I’ll tell him.
51:09 The following success secrets are only available inside the London Real Tribe where you get exclusive access and insights from our high-performance guests on wealth creation, productivity, leadership, morning routines, health and well-being. To join our tribe community, go to londonreal.tv forward slash tribe. Now let’s continue with the show. A solid advice, man. Dillian, you’re a man who’s wise beyond his years.
51:36 So I appreciate talking to you and thanks for the time during camp. I know it’s the last thing you want to do is talk to people when you’re in the middle of camp. So, look, wishing you all the best this weekend and then of course in 2021 taking out these guys and when you want to train some jujitsu with me, you let me know and I’m wishing you all the best with your career and everything. All right? No worries, man.
51:57 Cheers. Thank you, my friend. Next time we’ll do this in person. All right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
52:03 All right. Sounds good, man. Thanks so much, man. I appreciate you. The fight is happening on the 20 seconds.
52:08 Make sure you grab it. Watch it on pay-per-view. It’s going to be maximum violence. It’s Dillian Whyte going head to head with Alexander Povetkin. It’s going to be epic.
52:17 I will be watching. Either Eddie’s going to get me the invite or I’ll watch it on pay-per-view. So there you go. Thank you so much, sir. Follow this man and we’ll see you next time on London Real.
52:26 Take care.
