Dillian Whyte has told WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman that he "almost lost his mind" during his 1,638-day wait for a world heavyweight title fight.
The Brit will finally get his opportunity at Tyson Fury and the WBC heavyweight championship on Saturday night after almost five years in which he was the WBC mandatory, minus a few months after losing to Alexander Povetkin. Whyte won his opportunity by beating Robert Helenius for the governing body's "silver" title in October of 2017, but was passed over on multiple occasions by Deontay Wilder.
Whyte won his opportunity at the WBC title while Wilder was champion in late 2017, but had to watch as Bermane Stiverne, Dominic Breazeale, Luis Ortiz twice and Fury three times fought for the belt before him.
Even after Fury defeated Wilder for the title in February 2020, had Wilder chose not to force his rematch clause, the Manchester native would have faced Anthony Joshua, not Whyte, in an undisputed fight first.
And in an impassioned speech towards Sulaiman during a media day at Wembley earlier this week, Whyte explained the situation, saying: "This is my future and my future has been affected.
"My name, my business has been affected by this, they've s****ed me properly, and it's cost me millions to be here, millions... It's cost me millions."
And after Sulaiman reassured him that he was in the national stadium as the WBC mandatory, he hit back, adding: "Yeah, but what did it take for me to get here? It almost took my mind."
"Mauricio, this s*** here almost made me go crazy," he continued, before the governing body's boss tried to argue that the situation was effected by the coronavirus pandemic, which started in 2020 long after Whyte's win over Helenius. "I fought for the WBC title twice in the pandemic.
"I still paid my sanction. The WBC title should never be delayed, I should have fought Deontay Wilder a long time ago, a long, long time ago. Why didn't you guys make me fight Deontay Wilder? This is the facts - don't tell me it's the pandemic.
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"Listen, I respect you, I respect your father [Jose Sulaiman, the former WBC President] and that's why I'm fighting for the WBC. But there's been a lot of things that need to be straightened.
"I only try to bring maximum violence, I try. I imagine anything and I'm staying calm because with the big fights, sometimes you can become crazy so now I'm just calm, smiles for the week and then Saturday night it's time for the beast."
Whyte did briefly lose his mandatory status in August of 2020 when he was beaten by Alexander Povetkin in a shocking knockout at Matchroom Boxing HQ. But he immediately rematched the Russian, landing a vicious stoppage of his own to reclaim his position as the top contender.
He has taken issue with the governing body's ruling of a purse split that goes 80-20 in favour of Fury, as well as the way that promoter Frank Warren has treated him in the build-up. For that, he refused to travel to the fight's launch press conference in London, but he has now worked out those issues and appeared at the pre-fight media day.
