Dillian Whyte demanded Moses Itauma ‘drop the tough guy act’ during a tense face-off on Thursday ahead of their heavyweight bout.
The veteran ‘body snatcher’, 37, will take on the highly-rated and undefeated youngster, 20, in the Riyadh Saturday showdown this weekend.
And in their final press conference ahead of the much-anticipated fight, the rivals’ disdain for each other was plain to see.
As the pair stood face-to-face in front of the Saudi Arabian crowd, Itauma had the nerve to tell Whyte to remove his shades.
‘Take off the glasses and show me those eyes,’ he ordered.
‘I want to see if they’re a sheep’s eyes or a wolf’s.’
Dillian Whyte demanded Moses Itauma ‘drop the tough guy act’ during a tense face-off on Thursday
It came after Moses joked about Whyte being more like a ‘sheep’ than a ‘wolf’
The rivals will go head-to-head during Saturday showdown in a highly-anticipated fight in Riyadh
The demand unsurprisingly prompted a fiery response from Whyte, who imitates a wolf’s howl before embarking on his trademark ring walk.
Warning Itauma, the British veteran boxer hit back: ‘What you got to see my eyes for? Forget all that man. Don’t try to act like the tough guy bro, be relaxed.
‘Just be nice and cool. We can put our hands on each other on Saturday.
‘Don’t try to act the tough guy when we’re being nice.’
Despite his confidence, Whyte is going into the bout on Saturday as the underdog and will be hoping to cause an upset.
The two-time former WBC interim heavyweight champion has a record of 31-3, winning his last three fights.
He’s bidding to be the first man to stop Itauma, who has a had a relentless start to his professional career with a logbook reading 12-0.
But this week hasn’t been all plain-sailing for Whyte ahead of what is a huge fight for him as he nears the end of his career.
Whyte is hoping to inflict a first defeat on the youngster
Itauma, aged 20, has won all 12 of his fights so far and is just over half of Whyte’s age (37)
On Thursday the Brit was forced to confront announcer Thomas Schreiber after he accidentally dubbed him the ‘baby snatcher’, as opposed to his usual monikor of ‘body snatcher’ – a reference to his aggressive style of targeting the torso.
‘Who was the announcer? I think it was Thomas Schreiber. Where is he? It’s fight week. They’re playing games,’ Whyte joked with Secondsout, scanning the room for the announcer before calling him over.
‘It’s a Queensberry show. They’re going to f*** with me. It ain’t nothing new. It’s crazy that he said that. Thomas Scheiber, I respect him as a professional, but clearly, he’s unprofessional. Thomas, come here and speak to me. That’s wild. I’ll rush him – joking! What was with that, man?’
Schreiber came over and was instantly in backtracking mode: ‘I apologise. It was a mistake. I wrote it down and the wrong word came out. It was an honest mistake.
‘For the rest of the week, it’ll be “The Body Snatcher.” Unfortunately, I only get one chance at it, and sometimes…’
Whyte cheekily quipped: ‘[Maybe] the booty snatcher, but the baby snatcher is wild, bro.’
After letting his dissatisfaction be known, he was gracious towards Schreiber before conducting the rest of his interview.
