Boxer Billy Dib vows to defeat cancer after first wife passed away from it

Comeback kid Billy Dib, whose first wife Sara died of leukaemia just weeks after their wedding, has vowed to beat his own serious cancer diagnosis.

Comeback kid Billy Dib has vowed to beat cancer, saying he will do it for his young son.

“You can call me Billy the comeback kid because in my career I’ve been down so many times and I’ve always found a way back,” he said.

“I am the comeback kid, I will be coming back. I am coming back to be a better person, to be a better human, to do more for humanity.”

Champion boxer Dib, 37, and his wife Berry, are parents to son, Laith, who turns three later this month.

He is scheduled to start chemotherapy at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital on Thursday and just a few weeks ago underwent surgery for what doctors thought was colon cancer.

Billy Dib has vowed to beat his cancer for the sake of his young son.

He found out this week he is in fact battling fast-growing Burkitt’s lymphoma.

“It was slowly starting to spread,” he said.

Dib at Westmead Hospital.

Dib says he is fit and will fight the cancer.

“The prognosis is they are telling me it is a 90 per cent survival rate … that is better than 50 or 30. It is more than a puncher’s chance. I have come into hospital fighting fit. I am going to fight as hard as I can.”

Dib held the IBF featherweight title from 2011 to 2013 and the IBO super-featherweight title in 2008.

Tragically, Dib’s first wife, Sara Selim Dib, died from leukaemia in September 2015, just eight weeks after she was diagnosed.

“I am not scared,” he said. “I am actually grateful that God has given this to me and none of my siblings, my wife or my son, or my parents, because if I was standing on the outside not being able to do anything about it would really kill me.”

Dib says he is grateful it is him, not a member of his family, who was diagnosed.

“I am not scared because I think that God has those who he loves and God is testing me. He is wiping my sins away, cleansing me from my past sins. And so if this is a cleansing and God is putting me through this test, I accept the test and I look forward to coming out the other end.”

Dib meanwhile will appear on Ten reality television series The Challenge when it premieres on Monday at 7.30pm.

It is a new format in Australia, likened to a mixture of Survivor, Big Brother and Bachelor In Paradise.

TV views will see Billy Dib Ten’s new reality competition The Challenge from Monday.

A motley crew of former reality stars, influencers and athletes are in the cast including Cyrelle Paule, Emily Seebohm, Megan Marx, Konrad Bien-Stephens and Jack Vidgen.

“I am facing a little bit bigger of a challenge than The Challenge,” he said of his health battle. Of the show, he added: “I just wanted to do something different. I was looking for other avenues in my life, boxing can’t be the be all and end all.

“Every contestant on the show had something to offer, whether it be drama, physical ability, having a laugh, everyone was capable of something.

“This was the first time I’ve ever done reality TV so it was a bit of a shock for me.”