Former WBC interim heavyweight champ Dillian Whyte’s routine workout turned into a disaster that forced the cancelation of his fight with Joe Joyce.
Dillian Whyte was supposed to face Joe Joyce in a heavyweight main event on April 5th. But after suffering a freak injury while lifting weights, Whyte’s attempt to extend his three-fight winning streak will have to wait.
Whyte, after an impressive win over Ebenezer Tetteh in December, seemed destined for a potential heavyweight title fight in 2025. But Whyte suffered a nasty finger injury that canceled his upcoming fight with Joyce weeks before the event.
Whyte’s finger injury was as gruesome as it gets.
Dillian Whyte details horrific finger injury that canceled Joe Joyce headliner
During a recent interview with talkSPORT Breakfast, Whyte explained the freak accident that canceled his fight with Joyce.
“I was training as usual and there was a guy next to me in the gym and he dropped his weights and it rolled down,” Whyte said. “As I put my weight down, I ended up catching his finger between his dumbbell and my dumbbell. I still wanted to fight so I didn’t tell my team, I had a few days off with a chest infection. But it cut right to the bone although I just thought I could get stitches and put it back in a glove again. It’s cut down the first joint so it’s hard for me to bend it and I can’t clench my first properly.
“I’m getting some feeling back, but I have been getting numbness in my finger. But my movement is coming back, it is cut to the bone so it could be nerve damage but we will see.” (h/t talkSPORT)
As of this writing, it’s uncertain how long Whyte will need to recover from the injury. If his damaged finger includes nerve damage, that will further delay his return timeline.
Whyte has bounced back nicely since a TKO loss to Tyson Fury in April 2022. He outpointed Jermaine Franklin and finished Christian Hammer before his most recent performance against Tetteh.
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Joe Joyce set to face former Daniel Dubois rival in new April 5th headliner
Joyce will face Filip Hrgovic on April 5th in Manchester. Hrgovic most recently lost to Daniel Dubois for the vacant IBF interim heavyweight championship last June to snap his 17-fight undefeated run.
Joyce returns to the ring after losses in three of his last four fights, including a unanimous decision defeat to Derek Chisora last July. Before that, he suffered back-to-back knockout losses to Zhilei Zhang.
As for Whyte, his finger injury brought his heavyweight title contention to an abrupt halt. But overcoming adversity is nothing new for Whyte, and he’ll look to return to the win column upon his comeback.