I had a hard childhood. I was born in Portland, Jamaica. My mum left when I was two and my dad wasn’t around, so I grew up with another family. There was no money and I didn’t go to school. I was pushed around a lot. I wasn’t taken care of. Some days I was so hungry I thought I was going to die.
I wasn’t a sports kid. I never had that luxury. I never had time to think about sports. I was too busy surviving, wondering where I was going to get my next meal. I had to do stuff that no child should have to. I remember collecting glass Coke bottles from the beach and using the deposit money to buy sweets, because they were the cheapest food I could find.
I moved to south London when I was 12 to live with my mother, and went to school for the first time. I got into a lot of scraps, because I spoke different, dressed different, looked different. I was expelled lots of times. I was shot and stabbed in the leg. These things happen in London. It’s just part of being in gangs and screwing up. If I wasn’t a boxer, I’d probably be dead or in prison.
The one thing life on the street taught me is discipline. Are you a hustler? Are you a survivor? I was getting into trouble, going down the wrong direction. Then a friend took me to the gym, and I didn’t look back.
I just like fighting. It’s my job. I focus on what I have to. I don’t go into any fight thinking I’m going to lose. I go in and dominate.
I’ve only started training like a professional in the last few years. Before, I didn’t have the knowledge. I stand up too straight. I haven’t got a traditional boxing style. I still have things to learn.
I don’t think I’m anything special. I’m just a normal, hardworking guy that’s super-determined. I’m not the fastest. I’m not the strongest. I’m not Godzilla. I’m a kid that started from nothing, trying to make something of himself.
I’m a pretty relaxed guy. When I’m not training I just hang with my family. I’m not a party guy. I don’t smoke and I don’t drink. Alcohol just ain’t for me. I haven’t had a drink for 16, 17 years. It’s just discipline.
The facts are there. [Whyte was banned between 2012 and 2014 for taking an incorrectly labelled over-the-counter supplement.] People can make up their own minds. Of course I was upset. I lost two years of my career, for nothing. That’s like losing your job for drinking a milkshake you didn’t know had alcohol in it.
My kids don’t watch me fight. They don’t want to watch their dad getting punched in the face. Daddy just goes out to work. Sometimes I come home with bruises. Sometimes I don’t. I’m just making sure my kids don’t go through what I went through. I hope their lives are a hundred times better.
Dillian Whyte faces Alexander Povetkin on Sky Box Office, 22 August
