DERECK CHISORA spared Dillian Whyte the expected pre-fight taunts instead, in the days ahead of his rematch with London rival, directing his ire at promoter Eddie Hearn.

Chisora condemned Hearn as “a snake in the grass,” saying he should have already secured a world title shot for Whyte. “He is selling Dillian short, 100 per cent. When you hold a WBC Silver belt then you are mandatory to fight for the title but they have not put the money up to fight,” Chisora said. “Eddie does not believe Dillian can beat Deontay [Wilder, the WBC champion]. “From what I have been told, if they had offered Deontay £4.5million then it was on.

“He should have got Dillian the Wilder fight. Eddie was supposed to phone Showtime and make the fight happen.

“Dillian was nodding because he knows, if I had that Silver belt then I would be fighting Deontay Wilder.

“Four years ago the Russians paid Wilder £7million to fight there and he went [although the fight with Alexander Povetkin would be cancelled due to the Russian failing a drug test]. If Eddie and Dillian offered him £7m to come to London and fight then he would have done it. But instead they kept lowballing the guy and he told them to forget it.”

Dillian Whyte vs Dereck Chisora

Whyte believes Chisora was foolish to turn on Hearn. “Dereck is not a clever man, he knows what he should have said, he’s trying to ruin his career,” he said. “What is he going to do when he loses, go and fight on Dave for David Haye?”

Though Dillian did add, “There is some truth to it, but it doesn’t take a genius, even a deaf and blind person could comment on that.”

Eddie Hearn dismissed Chisora’s comments. “A lot of that is mind games from Chisora, trying to unsettle the camp,” he said. “But we’ve done everything we can and if the WBC want to call the mandatory who is number four rather than the man who should be the mandatory, who is number one there’s nothing we can do.

“We’ve been desperate for Dillian Whyte to fight Deontay Wilder. We made dozens of offer and he wouldn’t fight Dillian Whyte so there’s not a lot we can do.

“People have got to want to fight and in terms of Dillian Whyte, Deontay Wilder did not want that fight for a very long time.”