LONDON, England — It was sometime in the 1990s when Dillian Whyte’s dad first said a phrase that did not really make any sense to his young son at the time.

Only now, with the 37-year-old rapidly approaching a crossroads fight that many people are expecting him to lose, have those old words taken on a greater significance.

“Everybody wants to go to heaven,” Whyte says, "but nobody wants to die.

“When I was a kid my dad would say random stuff to me all the time and most of it made no sense. But now as I get older I understand what he was trying to tell me, and I miss it."

On the face of it, the emotive mantra could be taken in a number of different ways, but with his Aug. 16 date on DAZN PPV with the young and seemingly unstoppable Moses Itauma drawing ever closer, the pertinence for Whyte is clear.

“It just means don’t be scared to take risks,” Whyte adds. “Don’t let people talk you out of something when you know where it is you want to be.

“If you think about it, we’ve got priests and popes that spend a hundred years in the church and when it’s time to die, they start panicking. Why are you worrying about dying? You’re a man of God and you’re hoping to go to heaven.

“You shouldn’t be scared to die because that’s the only way you’re going to get there. My mindset is that nobody wants to fight Moses, he’s young, sharp and full of beans but you have to believe in yourself and take risks. Sometimes you have to take risks to get to the place you want to go.

“Anyway to cut a long story short, I believe in myself.”

Whyte is nearly twice his opponent’s age, and a veteran of 34 professional fights. Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs) is the sort of prospect anyone would like to buy shares in, with a seemingly limitless upside given the state of the heavyweight division.

It has been suggested that the 20-year-old is perfectly placed to take over from undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk as the No. 1 heavyweight once the Ukrainian decides to hang them up. Whyte, living and training out in Portugal, has heard the noise but has not really spent much time listening.

“They are saying he’s the most dangerous guy from this era and the next era,” he says. “So I guess that’s win-win for me. I’ll let the experts decide.

“These last few years have taught me that this is what I do, this is what I love doing and I need to take advantage of it, focus on it and appreciate it because it’s here today, gone tomorrow. You can be the man today and tomorrow you’re nothing.

“If I go in there and blow Moses out in one round, what will people say? Today, he’s the next Mike Tyson, who is great, who is amazing, people are talking about him fighting Usyk. But if I go in there, do my thing, catch him and blow him out then what? Does that mean he’s not good anymore? No it just means it was a good fight and he got caught.

“There’s going to be a fight on 16th of August. I’m going to come and do my thing. Whether he’s the A-side or I’m the A-side, B-side or C-side, someone is going to be on their backside and that’s all that matters.”

While many other heavyweights, including Whyte’s long-term rival Derek Chisora, have turned down facing Itauma, the Jamaica-born Londoner had no problem accepting this fight. He was just happy to be involved again.

As he puts it, he has been "out in the long grass" for a couple of years now. After losing in his first and only world heavyweight title shot to Tyson Fury in April 2022, Whyte returned to narrowly outpoint Jermaine Franklin at Wembley Arena the following November.

His reward for that win was a long-awaited rematch with Anthony Joshua, but that was cancelled after Whyte returned "adverse analytical findings" in a pre-fight VADA test.

In March 2024 he was cleared to continue his career after an investigation confirmed the findings were the result of a contaminated supplement and Whyte returned that month in a low-key win over Christian Hammer in Ireland. He has boxed once since then, when forcing Ebenezer Tetteh to retire on his stool after seven rounds of their Gibraltar tear-up.

At the beginning of the summer, Whyte told The Ring that he continues to fight because he is certain he is capable of punching his way into another world title attempt. But you sense the truth is he knows nothing else but fighting.

“I was thinking two or three years ago, when I was sitting down and watching all of this unfold, 'Damn, I need to get back to the table,'” he says. “So now I’m here, sometimes it’s a bit surreal. It just shows that hard work, dedication and resilience pays off.

“But I’ve always been a fighter. I was born in the middle of a hurricane. In 1988 when my mum was giving birth to me a hurricane came and blew the roof off. I just know how to persist. I’m extremely stubborn.

“All I’ve done in my life is fight and struggle. Everything else, I’ve got to learn. I’ve got to learn to be a better human being, be a person of faith, more loving, caring. But fighting and being in amongst animals are the two things I know best.”

For now, that means the 22 dogs he owns. Some are back in London with his family, some are with him where he stays in Portugal. One of the new-born puppies will be going back home with Mike Perez, a chief sparring partner, once camp is done. It’s why the underdog tag is not one that bothers Whyte at all.

“As you know,” he adds. “I’m a dog man.

“So anything to do with dog, I’m there all day, every day. I’m an underdog, top dog, bottom dog, front dog, side dog. As long as there’s a dog involved, I’m all in.”