Dillian Whyte has explained exactly what happened to force him out of his planned fight with Joe Joyce over the weekend.
The hard-hitting British heavyweights were due to square off in Manchester on Saturday night, but when Whyte suffered a gruesome injury the fight was called off. Instead, Joyce took on Filip Hrgovic, who took a decision victory in the short-notice bout.
While it has been common knowledge just how badly Whyte was hurt, he still made an appearance in Manchester on fight night to watch his two rivals. And he explained exactly what happened, showing photos to journalist Radio Rahim during an interview for Seconds Out.
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Dillian Whyte suffered horror injury before Joe Joyce fight
Dillian Whyte was training to fight Joe Joyce on April 5 when he brutally injured his finger during a workout. Speaking to Seconds Out, he noted that he felt the finger ‘explode’ after crushing it between two dumbbells.
“I was training at the gym, someone dropped their weights,” he explained. “I went to put the weights down and then I crushed my finger in between the dumbbells and it just exploded. I felt pressure and then the pressure just released. It exploded.
“A cut is easy, a cut is clean cut. But when it splattered, at the time I didn’t even care about the thing I was just like ‘s— I’m not going to be able to fight,’ that’s all I was thinking about. The pain kicked in about ten minutes after driving to the hospital.”
Whyte is only just now getting feeling back in his hands, and corrected Radio Rahim when the host noted he was lucky there was no nerve damage. He now notes that he has to work on the damaged nerves.
Joe Joyce was defeated by Filip Hrgovic in Manchester
It is unclear what is next for Dillian Whyte, but he may still get a shot at Joe Joyce after he suffered a defeat on Saturday night. The Brit was seemingly taking on a tougher test in the more active Hrgovic, but he battled well over ten rounds to get to the scorecards.
Joyce survived well and even won rounds against Hrgovic, who was coming back out after being stopped by Daniel Dubois last summer in Saudi Arabia. It was expected that he would stop the aging Brit, but Joyce showed he still has a lot in the tank at the level.
Whyte insisted that he would have been able to stop Joyce, although it remains to be seen as he has only fought twice in the last year.