Otto Wallin urges Dillian Whyte to ‘go for the eye’ in his bout with Tyson Fury

Otto Wallin urges Dillian Whyte to ‘go for the eye’ in his bout with Tyson Fury hinting it could be a weak spot after the Swedish fighter targeted the area in his narrow defeat by the Gypsy King that left him needing 47 stitches

  • Otto Wallin came close to defeating Tyson Fury during their 2019 encounter
  • The Swedish fighter left Fury with a seriously injured eye before narrow loss
  • Now Wallin has encouraged Dillian Whyte to target the same area
  • Whyte and Fury will finally end their long running feud this Saturday at Wembley
  • Wallin though tips ‘smart guy’ Fury to claim victory through a decision  

Tyson Fury’s former opponent Otto Wallin has urged Dillian Whyte to learn from him and ‘go for the eye’ after he left the Gypsy King with a nasty cut requiring 47 stitches when the pair met two and a half years ago.

Swedish fighter Wallin lost the fight via a unanimous decision in Las Vegas in 2019 but had Fury badly hurt after handing him a gaping wound just below his right eye and believes Whyte should use his power and devastating left hook to target that same area.

Whyte and Fury will finally end their feud at Wembley Stadium this Saturday after months of tension between the pair, with the latter backed as the favourite to see off The Body Snatcher. Wallin was set to fight Whyte last year before he pulled out with an injury and moved on to face Fury instead.

Whyte (above) will take on Fury on Saturday at Wembley

Otto Wallin (left) has urged Dillian Whyte (right) to target Tyson Fury’s eye during their bout

He is backing his ‘smart’ old foe for the victory but identified where Whyte could cause some damage. The 31-year-old – who has won 23 career fights and was delivered his only loss by Fury – was appearing at the media workout at BoxPark Wembley for Swedish TV duties.

‘For this fight, I like Fury [because] he’s such a smart guy so I have a hard time going against him,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘I think he’s going to win from a decision.

‘[Whyte] really needs to make it’s a tough fight. You can’t win a boxing match against Fury, that’s for sure. He’s got to cut off that ring, make it really small and try to work that body, close in on him. Fury will have to try and lean on him and try to tire him out. For Whyte, he’ll have to just let his shots go and use that left hook to go for the eye – that’s how I hurt Fury.’

Wallin met up again with Fury on Tuesday ahead of the Gypsy King's bout with Whyte

Wallin met up again with Fury on Tuesday ahead of the Gypsy King’s bout with Whyte

Wallin may have lost on the scorecards that night but believes he easily could have handed Fury his first ever loss at professional level having come into the fight unbeaten.

He questioned whether the referee might have waved it off had another fighter with a lower profile suffered the same amount of damage to the eye as Fury did.

‘For sure,’ he said when asked if he felt the fight could have gone the other way. ‘It was on points but I really hurt him and they could have stopped it. The punch I caught him with was a clear punch and it was ruled as a punch. It was a really bad cut. It’s hard to say if that fight would have been stopped if it was somebody else. If I had somebody else cut as badly as that, for sure it would have been stopped.’

He said he would love to have another shot at Fury in the future, saying he was ‘a lot stronger’ two years on from when they first fought and feels he could get the knockout next time.

Wallin left Fury with an injured eye when he caught him with a punch over two years ago

Wallin left Fury with an injured eye when he caught him with a punch over two years ago

Fury needed treatment during his narrow win before requiring 47 stiches to the injury

Fury needed treatment during his narrow win before requiring 47 stiches to the injury

‘I know that I can do better – I had never been at that level before,’ he says. ‘I had only fought one round in 18 months when I fought Fury. Another two years of training in the bank and I’m feeling a lot stronger. It was a great experience for me and definitely [I would face him again].

Wallin was all set for a huge contest with Whyte last October, before the British star suffered a shoulder injury and was forced to pull out. There was plenty of claims that Whyte had even faked the injury after Fury beat Wilder earlier that month – giving him a clear opportunity to step up and challenge him as the mandatory challenger.

Wallin – who also revealed he was in the running to fight Anthony Joshua when his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk was in doubt due to the Ukraine war – said he was unsure whether the injury was legitimate but admits he ‘never saw proof’, and said it was clear that Whyte’s camp had no intention of rearranging the bout.

‘I can’t really speculate too much [about the injury],’ he added. ‘All I can say is I never saw a proof of any injury, so I don’t know about the injury. But what was clear to me was that he didn’t want to reschedule the fight, it was obvious that he wanted to fight Fury. Was he injured? I don’t know. I never saw an improvement.’

Fury took part in an open workout session at Wembley on Tuesday ahead of his fight

Fury took part in an open workout session at Wembley on Tuesday ahead of his fight

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