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Dillian Whyte has rubbished claims he faked injury to pull out of his fight against Otto Wallin, and wants to face WBC champion Tyson Fury next.
Last week Whyte, 32, withdrew from this Saturday's bout with a shoulder injury, with Sweden's Wallin and his promoter insisting the fight be rescheduled.
But that now appears unlikely.
"This is a no-brainer. Tyson Fury is considered the best heavyweight ever," Briton Whyte told BBC Five Live's Boxing podcast.
"So fight him or fight somebody who doesn't even know how to speak properly.
"All he does is cry. Him and [promoter Dmitriy] Salita cry like babies. Crying he's lost £15,000 on training camp. I spent ten times the amount of that on training camp."
'I don't pull out of fights'
The WBC recently announced plans to order their champion Fury, 33, to defend his belt against their interim title holder.
That is Whyte, and he will remain as such despite the decision to pull out of the fight against Wallin.
Wallin's promoter Dmitriy Salita is pushing to have the fight rebooked, while his heavyweight insisted he wants to see evidence of Whyte's injury.
Whyte has been left unimpressed with comments by Wallin.
"People know I don't pull out of fights," he said.
"My shoulder just completely shut down - I was in pain. Come out of the ring and said something's not right here.
"This ain't right for me to complain about. We went and did an MRI [scan] the next day and it showed my shoulder was way worse than I thought it was. I wanted to fight.
"I said if we managed it, got an injection before the fight, I'll fight. I didn't want to pull out. But no, because you get idiots like Salita and Wallin talking crap.
"Wallin was a hand-picked cherry. He wasn't a voluntary, he was just someone I picked [to fight]."
He added: "I wanted to fight. I begged them to fight. If I need surgery after, I need surgery after. I've done it before, nothing new to me."
Fury v Whyte set for 2022
Whyte will take the rest of the year off to recover from his shoulder injury and hopes to fight Fury next spring - when Anthony Joshua is expected to have his rematch with WBA (Super), WBO and IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk.
"That'll be the plan," Whyte said when asked if he will fight Fury early next year.
"It's Wallin or Fury next. Of course Wallin is going to be upset. He's spent money he thought he was going to earn. Many times I've had fights fall through, you can't be upset.
"This is an investment in your career and your future. I see why he's upset. Some fighters don't dodge fights, some fighters don't pull out of fights.
"But in that time, if a potential better opportunity comes up, I've been waiting to fight for the world title. I'm not going to put it off to fight Otto Wallin."
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