Dillian Whyte is targeting a return to the ring by the end of May. 

The heavyweight was forced to withdraw from a contest with Joe Joyce scheduled for April 5 in Manchester, England, owing to a hand injury, but he is to continue rebuilding following the stoppages in 2024 over Christian Hammer and Ebenezer Tetteh that came after “adverse analytical findings” in a doping test cancelling his rematch with Anthony Joshua scheduled for August 2023.

Whyte, 36, is expecting his leading heavyweight Fabio Wardley to next fight Kubrat Pulev – Whyte also works in a management capacity – and he has also signed Cuba’s Mike Perez. 

Pulev-Wardley may yet even present him with the date he is seeking for his next fight. Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions are expected to oversee Pulev-Wardley, and it was on a Queensberry bill that Whyte-Joyce was scheduled to take place.

“He, while training, had an incident with a weight and nearly cut his finger right open,” said Mike Ofo of Platform Sport. “You can actually see it to the bone. It’s quite brutal. It was almost like a clash, and his finger got caught in between it. He wanted to carry on fighting, but sometimes you’ve got to save these warriors from themselves, and let him compete when he’s 100 per cent.

“He needs a couple more weeks, and once those couple more weeks are over he should be able to get back into training. At the moment, things like putting his hand in a glove is not possible, so he’s just ticking over until he’s able to start punching.

“Another two months, Dill will be back in fighting shape. He’s already looking slimmer and trim – ready to go off of the back of his win over Tetteh, so it’s not going to be a long delay. Dill’s going to be ready and back in action. 

“[He was] devastated. The warrior in him hid it. But the team, we have a duty of care; ethics that we need to maintain for the safety of our fighter.”

Perez has been largely overlooked since his defeat by Mairis Breidis in 2017 in the cruiserweight edition of the World Boxing Super Series. 

“He’s fought at cruiserweight all the way to heavyweight; he’s going to be a very dangerous man,” Ofo said. “We’re working [on a promoter] at the moment. 

“He’s interested in fighting all cruiserweights and heavyweights; Chris Billam-Smith; Richard Riakporhe; Cheavon Clarke; any of these guys that class themselves as credible, he’s ready to take on.” 

Whyte, incidentally, was replaced by Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic as Joyce’s opponent.