Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte have been friendly and respectful this week - but their long-running feud is laid bare by their social media interactions.
At one point, Fury and Whyte were close friends and sparring partners, with the world heavyweight champion saying that the pair stayed together during training camps. But their relationship has soured over the years and they are now bitter rivals.
And that rivalry will culminate in a record-breaking world heavyweight title fight in front of 94,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in London tonight. Whyte is the heavy underdog, but has always maintained he enjoyed the better of the pair's sparring sessions whenever they did meet in the ring.
As recently as January of 2015, Fury and Whyte were polite with one another, offering best wishes to one another after being unable to meet up for a sparring session. The London native was preparing to face Marcelo Nascimento, whom he would stop within two rounds, while Fury was working towards facing Christian Hammer.
"I can't come down as I'm in camp for February 28," Fury said to Whyte's request. "Have a good fight. Maybe another time." Whyte responded: "Thanks same to you, I am in camp as well as I have three fights back to back you know how it is have a safe camp."
Whyte was then seen training with Wladimir Klitschko as the pair prepared to face Fury and Anthony Joshua respectively. However, this didn't seem to cause too much of a rift with Whyte congratulation Peter Fury on his nephew's win over the Ukrainian. "Thanks big P," he said in a December 2015 tweet. "Always love and respect well done to Tyson Fury."
However, he planted the seeds for a potential fight at the end of the tweet, adding: "You guys did well, now it's my time. #AndTheNew." But two months later, in February 2016 he tweeted Fury "How you doing big lad? You good?" After he had teased a stint in the Celebrity Big Brother jungle.
There was little communication over the next two years between the pair, as Fury battled with mental health struggles and drug issues. It was April of 2018, when the Manchester native had declared that he was to come back that Whyte tweeted about his interest in fighting Fury among another host big names in the division.
Then on May 31, he shared a video of former heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs repeating his signature "let's go champ" catchphrase. He tagged Fury, Joshua and Wilder and captioned the video "My mood today, let’s make some big fights boys let’s give the fans some nights to remember. #AmReady #LetsGoBaby."
And it was bitter by August 20, two days after Fury had defeated Francesco Pianeta and set up a December fight with Deontay Wilder for December. "Unlike you I’ll fight anyone," he tweeted at Fury.
"You refused to fight me as I knocked you down so many times in sparring and if you pull out in November with yet another fake injury I’m more than happy to take your place and smash up that other coward. Deontay Wilder."
A few weeks later, Fury replied to a fan by mocking Whyte along with former cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew. He tweeted: "the best fights the best, the best don’t fight bums like Dillian Whyte and Tony Bellew". Whyte replied by calling Fury a "prat", to which Fury responded with a thumbs up emoji.
In May of 2019 as Fury was preparing to face Tom Schwarz and Whyte was getting set up for a bout with Oscar Rivas, Whyte again went at his rival. "When was the last time you knock someone out mate?" He asked in a tweet. "Couldn’t even knock out a w***".
When Fury tweeted his support to Anthony Joshua after his June 1 loss to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019, Whyte responded by calling him a "p****", and weeks later he called Fury a bum in an angry tweet following his win over Schwarz. "Can’t believe I stayed to watch that joke of a fight," he said after watching Fury land a second round stoppage.
"Tyson Fury should be ashamed of self running away from me and fighting these chumps. My mother would have knocked out Tom the bum in a round."
After watching an interview on Behind The Gloves where Fury called Whyte a "b****" and declared that the next time he saw Whyte they would be fighting, the Londoner once again took to Twitter. He shared the clip with the caption: "Listen Tyson Fury, I am not hard to find.
"Gang gang look me up mate you are the one who called it on and then you p****ed out when the WBC gave you what you asked for. I will fight you any time, anywhere."
Whyte did congratulate Fury and say "lets get it on" when he won the WBC title, for which he was mandatory challenger, from Deontay Wilder in February of 2020. But by June the respect was gone again.
On June 26 and 27, he went on a tirade against Fury, saying: "Gypsy Coward always conning the public you forget I’ve put you down lots before and watched you pathetically sobbing on the canvas. You ran away last year when the WBC ordered you to fight me anytime anywhere anyhow."
He followed it up with: "Listen Luke “Fake Tyson” Fury. You’re a deluded Gypsy Coward who lies about everything. When I was knocking you down and you were sobbing I felt sorry for you and started taking it easy but next time I will retire you."
His next tweet read: "Keep running Luke. Unlike you I’m a real fighting man not a lying fake coward and I’ll fight u or anyone else anywhere including Eddie [Hearn's] back garden. I’m not begging for a payday but you are begging WBC to make you franchise champ so I don’t humiliate you again."
Fury responded by posting a text he had privately sent to Whyte, captioning the photo: "This is a text I sent Dillian Whyte back in December after his fight with [Marius] Wach, I was concerned about him so I reached out to him and this is how people treat you when you're nice to them!"
Who wins tonight; Tyson Fury or Dillian Whyte? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"And by the way," Fury continued. "When he was out on a ban years ago I kept him going with bringing him in to my camps sparring and paying him and looking after him like egg in a cake & this is how I’m repaid with BS tweets. There is a saying people take kindness for a weakness."
Whyte responded to Fury's picture: "Luke the fake professional victim looking for more attention stop running & fight me you coward."
In September of 2021, weeks before his trilogy bout with Deontay Wilder, Fury was much more aggressive towards Whyte. He said "Dillian Whyte is a chinless piece of shit, who is a massive s***house was offered 5 mill to fight AJ and declined. I’m putting you on notice you bum try not to lose again before I smash you to bits in a 'keep busy fight' for me before I smash Anthony Joshua."
Whyte hit back by branding Fury a 'coke head', saying: "Coke head don’t talk about what you don’t know. Talk about the two times you got ordered to fight me and p***ied you gypsy coward you know where am at coke head hit me up baby I got you covered."
The time for talking is, at this stage, done. Fury and Whyte will meet in front of 94,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in what the champion claims will be his final bow.
