By Scott Gilfoid: Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs) weighed in at 254.2 pounds for Friday’s weigh-in for his important match-up against former WBA World heavyweight champion Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (25-0, 22 KOs) this Saturday night on Mach 24 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Browne weighed in at 264.5 lbs.
Browne vs. Whyte will be televised on HBO Boxing After Dark in the U.S. The televised card starts at 6pm ET/3pm PT. There will be a replay of the fight a 10pm ET on HBO. Browne-Whyte will also be televised on Sky Sports in the UK.
Browne’s weight is the heaviest he’s come in since 2014, when he weighed in at 273 lbs. for his fight against Eric Martel Bahoeli.
Much has been made about Whyte supposedly looking defined and in great shape for today’s weigh-in. The reality is, Whyte’s weight of 254 ¼ lbs. if seven lbs. heavier than the 247 that he weighed in for his last fight against Robert Helenius last October in Cardiff, Wales. Whyte looked like he was in better shape for that fight than he is right now for Browne. Whyte might have been snacking more often in getting ready for the Browne fight.
”Dilllian has been working his way up the rankings and now sits pretty at WBC number one. We expect the winner of this fight to be in position for a mandatory shot at Wilder. It’s going to be explosive, violent match-up with plenty of bad blood between the two,” Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn said to the Telegraph.co.uk.
Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been adamant that if ‘The Body Snatcher’ wins on Saturday, he’ll be looking to match him against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder or Anthony Joshua next. Hearn says Whyte will be the ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder’s mandatory challenger after Saturday, and he figures that the fight will have to be made at that point. I get the sense that Hearn is looking for anyway possible for Joshua to duck the Wilder fight. If Hearn can get lucky with Whyte beating Wilder, then he’s got a painful thorn out of the side of his golden goose Joshua. Hearn doesn’t ever have to match Joshua against Wilder if the Bronze Bomber is beaten by his Matchroom boxing stable fighter Whyte. As such, you can expect Hearn to be standing on a soap box after Saturday’s fight and calling for the WBC to order the Wilder vs. Whyte fight immediately. Whether the WBC will bend to Hearn’s wishes will be interesting to see.
Unfortunately for Hearn, that’s not how things go. Even if Whyte does become Wilder’s mandatory challenger, it could a year for him to get a title shot. As such, unless Hearn wants to open up his piggy bank and come up with the $7 million asking price for Wilder to give Whyte a title shot, he’s just going to have to wait a long time for the World Boxing Council to get around to finally ordering Wilder and Whyte to face each other.
It’s more likely that Whyte will need Hearn to give him a title shot against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua rather than him getting a crack at Wilder if he wins on Saturday night against ‘Big Daddy’ Browne. The WBC isn’t going to order the Wilder vs. Whyte fight right away. Why would they do that? There’s a much bigger fight that can take place between Wilder and Joshua if Hearn will let his cash cow take the fight. The WBC would be shooting themselves in the foot if they ordered Wilder to fight Whyte straightaway if he wins on Saturday.
“I want to smash this guy’s face! It’s about getting the win – whether we’ve got to box, or try to stop him,” Whyte said to Sky Sports News. ”I want to make him bleed. He’s a big guy who likes to use his head and elbows. I’m looking to cut him up with my punches.”
Oh my, doesn’t Whyte sound like the angry one? He seems to be a tad bit angry for some reason. I wonder if Browne has gotten under his skin by saying he sees him as the new version of Dereck Chisora or the fact that he views him as gatekeeper type heavyweight at best. I think for a lot of people, Whyte is viewed as another Chisora type of heavyweight, because he’s a good fighter, but he lacks the speed, power and talent to get to the next level. Whyte is slow and he tends to leave himself open when he throws his shots. His last opponent Robert Helenius took advantage of Whyte’s leaky defense in clipping him with a big right hand to the head in round 2 that caused his legs to go to jelly. If that happens on Saturday night, Browne will look to finish Whyte off. He won’t run out of gas immediately after he hurts Whyte the way that Helenius did. That was the strangest thing. It’s as if Helenius lost all of his energy in throwing that one power shot. I’ve seen that happen with fighters over the years, but it’s always strange. How do you gas out after throwing one big shot? If Browne hurts Whyte with a big shot, he’ll look to go for the coup de grace to finish the job.
I think it’s a mistake on the 29-year-old Whyte’s part for him to have bulked up for the Browne fight. Whyte is seven pounds heavier than his last fight against Helenius, and he didn’t look all that energetic in that fight. Whyte has had conditioning problems in the past, and he probably should have worked on getting his weight down to the mid-220s. Earlier in Whyte’s career, his weight was in the 220s, and he had more speed at that weight and his conditioning looked far better. He’s bulked up over the years, and it’s left him slower without any additional punching power.
Browne, 38, is 14 lbs. heavier than the 250 lbs. he weighed for his title fight against Ruslan Chagaev two years ago in 2016. Browne stopped Chagaev in the 10th round to win the World Boxing Association heavyweight title. Browne must be banking on using his extra size to beat Whyte. Browne weighed in 10 lbs. heavier than Whyte did on Friday. Whether that extra 10 lbs. will help him remains to be seen.
In other weights on Saturday’s card, former heavyweight world title challenger Dereck Chisora (27-8, 19 KOs) weighed in at 250 ½ lbs. for his 8 round fight against Zakaria Azzourzi (14-2-2, 10 KOs). For his part, Azzourzi weighed in at 245 ¼ lbs. Azzourzi is 49 lbs. heavier than he was just seven years ago in 2011. Azzourzi has put on a lot of weight, and unfortunately not all of it is muscle.
Chisora helped Lucas Browne out with sparring recently to assist in getting him ready for Whyte. He also gave him some pointers in how to beat him.
