David Haye this week pulled out of his December 17 blockbuster rematch with Tony Bellew after undergoing surgery on a torn bicep.The bout, which was set to take place at the O2, is expected to be rescheduled for early 2018.Dillian Whyte claimed he was willing to step in and replace Haye - but Bellew dismissed the 29-year-old's offer.Whyte most recently fought on the undercard of Anthony Joshua's latest world title defence against Carlos Takam.He won a unanimous decision against Robert Helenius in Cardiff but fans were not impressed by the snorefest, eventually booing in the 11th round.Whyte initially tweeted: "Let’s not let the boxing fans down, I will fight Bellew in December and beat him up even without a proper training camp."

His offer was not taken seriously by Team Bellew.

Bellew's trainer responds

Tony Bellew's trainer Dave Coldwell has hit back at Whyte, explaining why the 34-year-old Liverpudlian has no intention of joining him in the ring.

"It winds me up, how he's [Whyte] jumped on this," said Coldwell. "I understand why he's doing this because he needs his name to be up there - he's attaching his name to a bigger name.

"He [Whyte] is going on talkSPORT and calling Tony 'a coward' and 'letting fans down'. He's that worried by the fans being let down but when all the fans were clamouring for him to fight Dereck Chisora in a re-match, in a fight that a lot of people thought he got beat, he said 'it wasn't worth it to him'. I understand that. Fighters have got to get where they want as quick as they can with as less punishment as they can.

"He's got to then understand that Tony is the one on the higher playing field - so what's the risk v reward there [for Bellew]?"

"Dillian is a great talker, he's a good fighter, but he's not done anything on that sort of level where Tony feels there is a lot to gain. Tony has been in the game a long, long time, and it's about fights that are going to excite him and give him some sort of reward for going through everything.

"There is everything to gain for Dillian, because he's chasing big fights. Nothing seems to be happening for Dillian and he wants it. He's training all the time and getting better as a fighter, but unfortunately for one reason or another, he's not landing the big fights. He needs the fight to break him out there and obviously he is targeting Bellew, because Bellew is that name."