Dillian Whyte signed the contract in the early hours of Tuesday morning to challenge Tyson Fury for the all-British blockbuster WBC heavyweight title fight after weeks of protracted negotiations.
The deal was finalised just after midnight ahead of the 6am deadline, 24 days after the purse bid was won by Fury’s promoters, and is certain to be one of the great boxing occasions of the year in the UK.
Telegraph Sport understands that the contest between unbeaten reigning WBC world heavyweight champion Fury – known as the ‘Gypsy King’ – and the mandatory challenger Whyte will take place at Wembley Stadium on April 23.
A press conference is expected to take place at Wembley on Wednesday although it is still to be determined whether Whyte, based in Portugal, will attend the official announcement.
Announcing the agreed terms, Fury made it clear that the late decision by Whyte to agree to the terms did not come as a shock.
“Dillian Whyte signed his contract for $8m, what a surprise,” Fury said.
“An absolute idiot. Should this even be a talking point? The man’s signed for the biggest payday he’s going to get in his life.”
It is understood that Whyte’s lawyers had been disputing the 80-20 purse split in Fury’s favour, wanting a greater sum of money to attend press conferences and promote the fight, on top of the Londoner’s guaranteed pay day of £6 million from the fight with an additional £3m on the table if he were to defeat Fury.
The champion, from Lancashire, is set to earn £25m. Fury’s co-promoters Frank Warren and Bob Arum had won the purse bid with a staggering record offer of £31m late in January, with rival promoter Eddie Hearn bidding £24m to host the fight.
Whyte has yet to comment since the purse bid was won, while Fury had accused his challenger of ducking the fight over the last week.
Fury said on his social media channels over the weekend: “I just heard that little sausage Dillian Whyte wants paying to turn up for a press conference. You little silly fat sausage, you’re getting that [a fist], you coward.”
According to Sky Sports, the contracts were finalised, signed and were lodged with the WBC in Mexico City just hours before the deadline was up with the WBC.
Promoter Warren has told Telegraph Sport that “Fury is the A-side in this, a mainstream crossover champion and it was up to him how this played out. The WBC ordered an 80/20 split and Whyte is getting by far the biggest payday of his career. It’s a great fight, a huge fight.”
The winner of Fury-Whyte will likely challenge for the undisputed world heavyweight title later this year, with Oleksandr Usyk set to defend his WBA, IBF and WBO world belts against Anthony Joshua.
Sources close to Joshua told Telegraph Sport that the former world champion’s new training team is “close to being decided” and that Joshua is likely to fight in London in May in a bid to become three-time heavyweight world champion.
It will be Fury’s first fight in the UK for four years, and the 33-year-old told Telegraph Sport: “I want to fight all of them – Whyte, Usyk, Joshua. I’ll show I’m the king of the era.”