out for the count

Dillian Whyte says he saw Wladimir Klitschko once knock former WBC champion Deontay Wilder ‘out cold’ during a sparring session.

Having held the WBA, WBO and IBF titles for years, the Ukrainian, along with his brother, became one of the most dominant heavyweights in history.

Vitali Klitschko held the WBC version and they famously refused to meet – meaning the division started to stagnate.

Getty Images - Getty 3 Wladimir Klitschko reportedly left Deontay Wilder ‘twitching’ after knocking him out

Upon Vitali’s retirement, the green and gold strap was eventually wrapped around the waist of the ‘Bronze Bomber’, although a fight to determine the best in the world and crown an undisputed champion never materialised.

And Whyte, who regularly trained alongside ‘Dr Steelhammer’ has offered an insight as to why this might have happened. Echoing the sentiments of Tyson Fury, the Brit revealed Klitschko comprehensively got the better of Wilder during sparring sessions.

Klitschko liked to draft in rising heavyweights towards the end of his career to his gruelling training camps at the remote Stanglwirt resort in Austria and used to dish out punishment on a regular basis.

“I’ve seen [Wilder] getting knocked out,” Whyte told Sky Sports. “Wladimir knocked him out.

Mikey Williams/Top Rank 3 Fury floored Wilder twice and stopped him in round seven of their Las Vegas rematch

Mark Robinson/Matchroom 3 Whyte returned to action in Saudi Arabia last year against Mariusz Wach

“He knew what happened. He had his hands up. He was roughing Wlad up, bringing the smoke, and he was going wild.

“It wasn’t no knockdown, he was knocked cold. Properly twitching as well.

“That’s why they probably didn’t want him to fight Wlad, because Wlad was going to fight him as a pro and Wilder never fancied it the whole time.”

Anthony Joshua was another one of the hot prospects in heavyweight boxing who came to help Klitschko prepare for fights and it was during one such camp where Whyte and Joshua resumed their rivalry from their amateur days.

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He added: “I wanted to punch Joshua up, at first, because he was talking a lot of smack.

“There was genuine annoyance there. Bashir [Ali] and a couple of guys stopped me getting at him and then it sort of got squashed. It was a bit edgy.”

The Brixton brawler returned to the ring in December 2019 on the undercard of Joshua’s successful world title fight against Andy Ruiz Jr as he regained his belts and exacted his revenge.

And a fight against veteran Alexander Povetkin was scheduled for the 31-year-old before the global COVID-19 pandemic struck.