By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten heavyweight talent Dillian Whyte (15-0, 12 KOs) says he wants Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn to find him a good opponent for him to face for his next fight on September 12th on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Gary Cornish fight card at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Whyte needs to get ready for his fight against the 6’6” Joshua in December, and he wants someone that is competitive with him so that he can get some rounds in to help sharpen up. Whyte’s opponent from last Saturday night, Irineu Beato Costa Junior (17-5, 15 KOs), wasn’t competitive at all.
Costa Junior folded up almost immediately after getting dropped hard twice by two big left hooks from Whyte in the 1st round. It’s unclear whether Costa Junior was Hearn’s idea for Whyte to face. If so, then Whyte definitely needs to have more input to the type of fodder that’s being put in the ring with him. I mean, Whyte can’t afford to face the same type of fighters that Hearn has been matching Joshua against his entire career because it’s not going to help him improve.
Being matched against fodder only develops bad habits and sloppy play. That’s why Whyte needs to insist on someone like Lucas Browne, Chris Arreola, or Erkan Teper. Someone like that would be a good tune-up to get Whyte ready for Joshua. But it’s a total waste of time for a talent like Whyte to be fighting the likes of Costa Junior, Kevin Johnson or Jason Gavern.
“I have heavy hands and I hit hard,” Whyte said via IFL TV. “I wasn’t trying to make a statement [against Costa Junior]. I was just going out there and trying to get another win. I definitely need to step it up a class now. I’m going to have a meeting with Eddie Hearn about who they’re thinking. If we’re not happy, we’re going to try and get somebody else. I definitely want a good opponent because I got a hard fight [against Joshua] come December. When I’m on form and relaxed, I can knockout any man real fast,” Whyte said.
Whyte is looking to get in good shape for his September 12th fight with the help of his new trainer Johnathon Banks at the new Kronk gym in beautiful Detroit, Michigan.
Whyte is really looking forward to the Joshua rematch, because he sees a lot of vulnerability in the bulky 250lb Joshua that he feels he can take advantage of. Joshua has put on 30 pounds of muscle almost overnight in the last two years of his pro career, and the weight has really slowed him down in a major way. Joshua was always flat-footed, slow and mechanical before he put on the needless muscle, but not evens slower and more mechanical. The thing is Joshua isn’t punching any harder now that he’s put the muscle. Joshua just looks more like he’s ready to go to the beach or a body building contest than someone who is being put together to win fights. In other words, Joshua’s muscle growth appears to be cosmetic rather than useful for him to win actual fights. It’s nice to look the part of a menacing puncher, but when the muscle you put on slows you down and doesn’t make you any more powerful than you were before, then you’re wasting your time putting on all the muscle.
As most people already know, it’s not huge muscles that make you a hard puncher. It’s natural strength. That’s why you have rail thin guys like Tommy Hearns, Andy Lee, Deontay Wilder punching like a mule kicks. None of them have huge bulky muscles, but each of them can/could really punch. That’s why it was disappointing recently to see that Wilder had bulked up in adding muscles for his last fight against Eric Molina. The new muscle growth made Wilder slower, and less capable of throwing his lightening shots. It also seemed to hurt his stamina, as he looked tired in the second half of his fight against Molina. Hopefully for Wilder’s sake, he trims off the muscles and goes lean again because that gives him his best chances for success in the heavyweight division.
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