Dillian Whyte was left bristling and bemused after an announcer messed up his boxing nickname – and accidentally described him as an infant abductor.
The heavyweight typically goes by the moniker of ‘body snatcher’ – a reference to his aggressive style of targeting the torso.
But at the Grand Arrivals in Riyadh, ahead of his Saturday showdown with Moses Itauma, Whyte suffered the embarrassment of being called the ‘baby snatcher’.
It’s safe to say his new tag didn’t go down well, with Whyte later confronting announcer Thomas Schreiber about his mishap, though their encounter was good-natured.
‘Who was the announcer? I think it was Thomas Schreiber. Where is he? It’s fight week. They’re playing games,’ he told 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?’
Dillian Whyte berated announcer Thomas Schreiber after he accidentally called him the ‘baby snatcher’ rather than ‘body snatcher’
Whyte is preparing to take on Moses Itauma and 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)
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.
The veteran, 37, is hoping to pull off an upset against his 20-year-old opponent in Riyadh on Saturday night.
Whyte, a two-time former WBC interim heavyweight champion, has a record of 31-3 and has won his last three fights.
He is bidding to be the first man to stop Itauma, who has had a relentless start to his professional career in the ring with a logbook reading 12-0.
