Dillian Whyte lasted less than two minutes against Moses Itauma in their August 2025 clash in Riyadh, and now, more than a year later, he’s explaining why the fight looked so one-sided from the opening bell.
Whyte notably skipped his trademark pre-fight wolf howl during his walk to the ring that night, and fans immediately picked up on how despondent he looked heading into the bout.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Whyte revealed the reason: he’d fractured his foot during a hard sparring session in camp after stepping back awkwardly while working with bigger, more agile partners.
I was running and I felt it [my foot] and then I went to spar and I was sparring big, agile guys and someone was pressing me, I stepped back the wrong way and then it just fractured clean.
The injury didn’t stay isolated to training camp. Whyte said the foot fractured a second time during his fight-night warmup while skipping rope, prompting the ringside doctor to examine it and advise him not to fight.
Whyte refused, saying there was no way he was going to travel all the way to Saudi Arabia and pull out at the last minute. Despite the injury, he said he remained confident he could drag Itauma into the later rounds and pull off an upset stoppage, similar to how Filip Hrgovic recently managed to do against Itauma.
I started warming up, jumped a little bit of rope, and then re-injured the foot. Completely fractured it again.”
“We had to call the doctor who was with me to examine it. He advised me not to fight and I said ‘no’. There’s no way I’m going to come all the way to Saudi and not fight last minute.
“I was confident that I would still be able to drag Moses into the later rounds and stop him as [Filip] Hrgovic recently did.
Whyte hasn’t fought since that loss but is now reportedly being lined up for a Zuffa Boxing return, with a domestic showdown against fellow British heavyweight Johnny Fisher being targeted.
