How Dillian Whyte Was Training For Fight With Otto Wallin

British boxer Dillian Whyte has been training hard in the shadow of Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua over the past six years.

He’s often slipped under the radar in the mainstream but has worked his way to becoming one of the top-ranked heavyweights in the world.

Whyte had been scheduled to fight Sweden’s Otto Wallin - a bout that would have shaped the next stage of his career - but he’s had to withdraw with a shoulder injury.

Victory would have set him up for a world title fight with Fury, who has taken on a new aura of invincibility since his decisive knockout win over Deontay Wilder on 9th October.

Whyte had looked extremely determined, particularly since enduring a shock defeat in August 2020 that shook off any complacency he had before.

The 33-year-old was knocked out by Alexander Povetkin in a behind-closed-doors event that might have ruined him.

But he was able to avenge that loss in March this year and had headed out to a training camp in Portugal ahead of the Wallin clash.

Focus On Strength & Conditioning

Strength and conditioning has been a key pillar of Whyte’s programme since he started training in Loughborough a few years ago.

There, he worked with some of the top coaches at Loughborough University and used the facilities on the campus, which prompted him to become a lot more modern and scientific in his approach to his fitness.

In this camp, he had been lifting some heavy weights to give him a strong base to work with.

Whyte had also posted photos of himself doing some strenuous battle rope workouts, which will have conditioned his aerobic system as well as built upper body strength.

On top of that, is the usual bulk of running that most boxers do. Unlike some, Whyte had taken to the track, even running some workouts in sprinting spikes.

Quality Sparring Partners

A big part of Whyte’s training approach is to bring in sparring partners of a high quality.

This time around, he’d recruited a number of southpaw fighters so he could prepare for the specific threat that Wallin would have posed.

Before the fight was cancelled, one of those sparring partners, Demsey McKean of Australia, told British Boxing News : “Dillian is looking and feeling strong and firing on all cylinders and it’s been a great development for myself to be sharing the ring with Dillian. I can't see past him in this one.”

Unfortunately, it was in sparring that Whyte’s injury worsened. His promoter, Eddie Hearn, has said the Body Snatcher will be back in the ring “very soon” but it’s unclear if the fight with Wallin will still go ahead at a later date.