By Scott Gilfoid: Newly crowned British heavyweight champion Dillian Whyte (19-1, 15 KOs) is volunteering to face the talented #1 WBA heavyweight contender Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs), who is facing a good friend of his American Malik Scott (38-2-1, 13 KOs) on November 12 at the Salle des Etoiles, in Monaco.
Whyte, 28, believes that Scott has the ability to pull off the upset over the 6’4” Cuban Ortiz. Logic would say otherwise. The southpaw Ortiz is expected to obliterate Malik in one or two rounds in the eyes of some fans.
The vacant WBA Inter-Continental heavyweight title will be on the line for the Ortiz vs. Scott fight. What’s interesting is that Whyte is now volunteering to fight Ortiz himself. I’m not sure why Dillian would want to fight a SUPER talent like Ortiz for. I mean, I’ve heard of falling on one’s sword before, but this is ridiculous. I just hope for Whyte’s sake his promoter Eddie Hearn tries to talk him out of it, because Ortiz is a world class talent and perhaps the best heavyweight in the division right now.
Whyte said this to skysports.com about Luis Ortiz and Malik Scott:
“I think Malik has got the skills to outbox him. I don’t know why people are saying he’s the man that no one will face. I’ll fight Luis Ortiz, I’ll fight anyone. He’s a good fighter, but I don’t see this mystical thing around him that everyone is raving mad about. ‘He’s the bogeyman,’ I don’t really think so. Like everyone else, he’s there to be knocked out and there to be beaten.”
Gosh, I think Whyte is really asking for it by blabbering about Ortiz. If Whyte wants the fight with the talented Cuban fighter, then he should call their mutual promoter Eddie Hearn and insist on walking the plank by fighting Ortiz immediately after he gets done making quick work of Malik Scott on November 12.
I’m sure Ortiz wouldn’t mind getting a fight in for December in a nice stay busy type of affair. I do believe that Hearn won’t make the fight between Whyte and Ortiz just yet. I think he’s going to try and match Whyte against Dereck Chisora if possible. Chisora isn’t one of his fighters in his promotion, but I think Hearn will give it a try to see if he can make the fight.
I think Hearn is saving Whyte for an eventual rematch against Anthony Joshua. The two of them fought last December, and they brought in 600,000 pay-per-view buys on Sky Box Office. If Hearn throws Whyte into the ring with Ortiz, he’ll likely get torn to pieces by the Cuban. It would be like feeding a hungry T-Rex.
Whyte doesn’t have his left hook working for him like he did in the past since having surgery. It would be too easy for Ortiz to obliterate Whyte right now, which is why I see Hearn saving Whyte for Joshua to tear apart in a rematch either next year or in 2018. Ortiz will probably need to wait until Joshua has had his rematch with Whyte before he gets a crack at him.
Ortiz has bigger things in his future than fighting a domestic level fighter like Whyte. Ortiz is world class, and we’ve already seen Whyte show his level recently in fighting for the British heavyweight title on October 7 against Ian Lewison. Whyte won the belt by a 10th round knockout, but the fight was VERY competitive until the 34-year-old Lewison ran out of gas.
I think Hearn is going to keep Whyte at the domestic level until he puts him back in with Joshua at some point. Chisora is a domestic level fighter as well, so it’s a fight that is worth making for Hearn. Chisora doesn’t look like he’s got enough left to best Whyte. I’m betting that Hearn will be confident enough in Whyte’s ability for him to make a fight between him and Chisora. But I DON’T see Hearn throwing Whyte in with Ortiz right now.
“That’s a fight that I want and it’s one that I’ve been trying to get for a while, but Dereck hasn’t been playing ball,” said Whyte.
Whyte wanted Chisora to help build up a fight between them by them both fighting on the same card recently on the undercard of the Ricky Burns vs. Kiryl Relikh in Glasgow, Scotland. Chisora (26-6, 18 KOs) opted instead to fight little known journeyman Drazan Janjanin (13-8, 12 KOs) on September 10 last month in Stockholm, Sweden, Chisora won the fight by a 2nd round knockout in a confidence booster type of fight.
Before that, Chisora had been beaten by Kubrat Pulev by a 12 round split decision in May 2016 in a failed attempt to win the vacant European Boxing Union heavyweight title. Pulev was too big, too talented and just too sharp for Chisora in that fight,