By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten heavyweight talent Dillian Whyte (15-0, 12 KOs) says he’d like to face unbeaten Lucas Browne (22-0, 19 KOs) or EBU heavyweight champion Erkan Teper (15-0, 10 KOs) for his next fight a month from now on September 12th at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Whyte, 6’4”, 250lbs, needs a good test to get him ready for his fight in December against unbeaten Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs) in London.
Whyte doesn’t want a soft job for his next fight because he needs someone who can give him some rounds like Browne or Teper.
“I would love to fight Browne on the 12th of next month be a good fight,” Whyte said on his Twitter.
Browne replied back that he’d like to take the fight with Whyte but he didn’t think his promoter would allow him to take the fight. The Tweet from Browne has since seemingly disappeared. Browne is facing some guy named Icho Larenas on August 14th. It looks like Browne will be playing it safe until he gets a title shot against WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev in 2016 or 2017.
It’s a pity through because the 36-year-old Browne can’t wait around forever to take a tough opponent, and Whyte would be a good option for him. At least if Browne got whipped by Whyte, he’d realize he’s wasting his time in boxing and could look to move into some other line of work. Unfortunately for Browne, he’s not young enough to wait out Whyte until he’s old and retired before making his move. Browne has to go for the biggest fights right now. Not sure I understand the Larenas fight though. Is that the best Browne’s promoter can do for him? It’s so, so sad.
“We had a phone call this morning, but still no opponent yet,” Whyte said via skysports.com. “There are still a couple of names that we are going through…They are guys like Johann Duhaupas and Edmund Gerber, and a few other guys. That sort of level of opposition. Erkan Teper is in the mix as well, but I doubt he will fight though seeing as he just won the belt. That is probably his last fight for this year maybe, so we will see what happens.”
Duhaupas would be a decent test for Whyte. I think he’s better than anyone that Joshua has fought thus far during his career, so there would be no shape in him being picked out for Whyte. I don’t think the idea of Gerber for Whyte.
Heck, if this is who Eddie Hearn will be selecting for Whyte to fight, then he might as well bring Costa Junior back for a rematch, because Gerber is about on the same lines as him in terms of talent. Whyte needs a stern test, not another soft job. What we don’t want to see is Whyte being matched up like Joshua has because that won’t help him at all develop as a heavyweight.
It’ll just be a waste of time because Whyte would be fighting worse guys than he did as an amateur if he got stuck fighting weak opposition like we’re seeing with Joshua. I think Joshua was facing far better opposition as an amateur than he is as a pro. Hearn has really taken Joshua backwards to the infancy of his amateur days with the awful opposition he’s been putting in there with him. They might as hang a heavy bag in the ring with eyes, nose and a mouth for Joshua to fight because his opposition has just been so poor since he turned pro.
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