Dillian Whyte faces Irineu Beato Costa Junior on Saturday

By Boxing News - 07/29/2015 - Comments

whyte888By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Dillian Whyte (14-0, 11 KOs) will be strutting his stuff this Saturday night in an eight round tune-up fight against 34-year-old Brazilian Irineu Beato Costa Junior (17-4, 15 KOs) on the undercard of the Luke Campbell vs. Tommy Coyle fight card at the Craven Park Stadium, Hull, Yorkshire, UK.

For Whyte, 27, this fight is little more than audition before his much bigger fight against unbeaten #2 WBC Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs) later this year in November or December at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Whyte needs to look good against Costa Junior to help drive interest for the Joshua fight.

A Loss to Costa Junior would likely erase any chances of a fight against Joshua. However, you can never assume that any fight wouldn’t get made given that Joshua is promoted by Eddie Hearn. I could still see him giving the green light to a Joshua-Whyte fight even if both fighters were coming off defeats.

There would still be fan interest in a rematch between them because Whyte beat Joshua six years ago in the amateur ranks, and Hearn has been building Joshua up as the next world heavyweight champion. Hearn hasn’t even waited until Joshua beat someone who had a beating heart before proclaiming him as the best thing since sliced bread. Hearn is already talking his head off about how Joshua is destined to become a world champion after he looked good beating journeyman Kevin Johnson, Rafael Love and Jason Gavern.

“I’m not overlooking this guy but I’ve got bigger fish to fry and I’m trying to get as much experience as I can,” Whyte said to skysports.com. “If I go past four rounds, for me it’s experience. If I get him out of there before that, then it’s just another fight.

Not surprisingly, Whyte doesn’t want to feel like he’s in competition with the other fighters – David Price, Joseph Parker and Denis Boytsov – who all recently beat Costa Junior. Price knocked him out in 6 rounds, while Boytsov stropped him in just 2 rounds. Whyte, who has never gone past 4 rounds during his career, feels like he needs to get some rounds in for him to gain more experience and get the rust out. He’s not fought much since coming off of a two-year drug suspension. Now that he’s back, he needs to get in as many rounds as possible and not just be looking to KO his opposition in the 1st or 2nd rounds like we’re seeing from the 6’6”, 250lb Joshua.

“There are so many good fights out there for me at this moment in time,” Whyte said. “Erkan Teper just beat Price to win the European title. That’s a fight that I believe I can win with ease. There are guys like Lucas Browne, Dereck Chisora, there are lots of fights out there for me.”

Whyte vs. Teper would be a great fight, as would Whyte vs. Chisora or Browne. Those would be excellent fights to help Whyte gain more experience and put him in position to get a world title fight in the near future.

If/when Whyte beats Joshua for the second time, it’s going to give Whyte a likely top 10 ranking by the World Boxing Council and that will put him on course for an eventual world title fight. However, as good as Whyte is, I don’t’ see him ever getting picked out by one of the world champions for a voluntary defense.

The only way Whyte gets a world title shot is if he becomes the mandatory challenger and that’s the only way he’ll be getting a shot. Talents like Whyte don’t get picked out for voluntary defenses by champions. He’s the type of guy who will need to become the No.1 mandatory challenger for one of the sanctioning bodies before he fights for a world title, and even then, I can see Whyte being made to wait a long time before he gets his eventual title shot.

Whyte feels very confident that he’s got Joshua’s number and will beat him again when he faces him. Whyte already knows how to beat Joshua by staying in the center of the ring and attacking him nonstop for three minutes of every round to make him tire out like he did in their previous fight. Whyte also knows that Joshua isn’t a big puncher when you get inside his punching range. Joshua mostly punches hard when he’s got an over-matched guy at the end of his shots. When they crowd him, Joshua’s power evaporates and he becomes very average. He’s also very slow with his hand speed, and easy to hit.



Comments are closed.