Dillian Whyte is eyeing a return to the ring in May following the collapse of his domestic dust-up with Joe Joyce.
Whyte was forced to withdraw from the all-British showdown on April 5 due to a hand injury, as first reported by talkSPORT.com.
The injury occurred during a strength and conditioning session when Whyte’s finger was crushed between two weights.
It was a massive setback for Whyte, who is currently on the comeback trail after being cleared last March of a failed pre-fight drug test ahead of his doomed rematch with Anthony Joshua in August 2023.
In the same month, Whyte retired Christian Hammer on his stool before following up with another stoppage win over Ebenezer Tetteh in December.
Whyte’s injury will stop him from fighting in April, with Filip Hrgovic stepping in to replace ‘The Bodysnatcher’ on short notice.
But promoter Mike Ofo insists that it won’t keep him out of action for too much longer.
“He, while training, had an incident with a weight and nearly cut his finger right open,” Ofo of Platform Sport told Boxing Scene.
“You can actually see it to the bone. It’s quite brutal.
“It was almost like a clash, and his finger got caught in between it.
“He wanted to carry on fighting, but sometimes you’ve got to save these warriors from themselves, and let him compete when he’s 100 per cent.
“He needs a couple more weeks, and once those couple more weeks are over he should be able to get back into training.
“At the moment, things like putting his hand in a glove is not possible, so he’s just ticking over until he’s able to start punching.
“Another two months, Dill will be back in fighting shape.
“He’s already looking slimmer and trim – ready to go off of the back of his win over Tetteh, so it’s not going to be a long delay.
“Dill’s going to be ready and back in action. [He was] devastated. The warrior in him hid it.
“But the team, we have a duty of care; ethics that we need to maintain for the safety of our fighter.”
Boxing Scene also reports that Whyte is aiming to step back between the ropes at the end of May, thus ruling out the possibility of a rescheduled fight with Joyce coming next.
