Tyson Fury doesn’t buy the idea that Dillian Whyte is entitled to a title shot.

Manchester’s Fury is set to defend his WBC heavyweight title against countryman Whyte, his mandatory challenger, on April 23 at Wembley Stadium in London.

For Whyte, the opportunity has been a long time coming. The Jamaican-born, London-based heavyweight has long caviled at the WBC for failing to get him a title shot, despite being, for years, the top contender with the sanctioning body. As Fury’s mandatory, Whyte, in one sense, is completely deserving of the fight.

Fury, though, thinks Whyte is far from being a worthy candidate based strictly on his body of work and accolades. Whyte, obviously, has only ever won regional and interim belts.

“If we go on merit and titles won, what’s he actually ever won?” Fury posed to IFL TV. “Let me tell you, because you can’t get involved. He’s won the British title before, but that’s it.”

One could, of courses, argue that Whyte’s supposedly insubstantial body of work is theoretically why he needs the bureaucratic muscle of an outfit like the WBC to deliver an opportunity that would otherwise fail to materialize by his own efforts alone.

Just don’t expect Fury to buy that reasoning.

“He won some WBC intermediate title, or whatever it is, but it’s not a real title,” Fury said of Whyte. “It’s not an official belt. Whatever, WBC Silver. That’s like a Mickey Mouse belt. I hope the WBC don’t mind me saying that, but it’s not a world title. Mauricio himself would say that. It’s not a world title. It’s a stepping stone belt for a young fighter that’s coming up.”

Fury, needless to say, had to go down the same path as Whyte to reach the point he occupies today. Fury became the unified heavyweight champion of the world in 2015, when he defeated Wladimir Klitschko by unanimous decision, an opportunity that arose in the first place for Fury because of his status as Klitschko’s mandatory.

However, Fury would be forced to give up his belts due to inactivity and would not enter the ring for almost three years, a period that saw his mental health plummet and drug abuse spike. Fury would regain one of his belts in 2020, when he knocked out Deontay Wilder in the seventh round of their 12-round WBC heavyweight title rematch bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Fury would defend it successfully the following year, beating Wilder once again by 11th round knockout to wrap up their trilogy. Fury (30-0-1, 22 KOs) will defend his WBC belt for the second time against Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs).

“He won the British title, fair play to him and all,” Fury said of Whyte. “But I’ve won 17 belts along the way. Props to me.”

The 34-year-old Whyte is coming off a fourth-round stoppage of Russian heavyweight Alexander Povetkin last March in Gibraltar, which was a rematch of their tussle in August of 2020 that saw Whyte get stopped in the fifth round.