By Scott Gilfoid: There’s a chance that Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport will have the Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte card be on pay-per-view on Sky Box Office on December 12th at the O2 Arena in London, UK. It’s still not decided as of yet.
It would be a potential flop if Hearn has the Joshua-Whyte card go as it is right now because there aren’t any real meaningful fights other than the main event. I think the boxing fans won’t be interested at all in paying to see the Joshua-Whyte card, because there’s nothing on the undercard to really interest the fans.
If Hearn could add the Kell Brook vs. Diego Chaves fight to the Joshua-Whyte card, then that would definitely make it a PPV fight because there would be one good fight between Whyte and Joshua, and two decent fights between Brook and Chaves and Eubank Jr. and O’Sullivan. When you combine the Eubank Jr-O’Sullivan and Brook-Chaves fights, you get one good fight out of it.
The rest of the undercard is nothing much. Unfortunately, Brook has a rib injury that is plaguing him, and he’s probably not going to be ready to return to the ring until next year at some point. A rib injury like the one that Brook has probably isn’t going to heal up in one or two months.
It’s going to take some time for it to heal. It would be too risky to put Brook in with Chaves on December 12th, because Chaves is a big body puncher and he’ll definitely be aiming his shots to Brook’s ribcage to send him down for the 10 count.
Thus far, Eubank Jr. has shown himself to be a great talker and self-promoter with his boasts about wanting to fight Gennady Golovkin and seeing him as a flawed fighter, but we’re not seeing Eubank Jr. face quality opponents for him to prove himself.
His last fight was against 39-year-old bottom dweller Tony Jeter last Saturday night. And now Eubank Jr. is about to fight another bottom dweller in Spike O’Sullivan instead of someone like Tureano Johnson, Arif Magomedov, Willie Monroe Jr., Dominic Wade or Antoine Douglas.
Middleweight Chris Eubank Jr. (20-1, 14 KOs) is currently in the co-feature bout in a mismatch against fringe contender #11 WBA Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan (22-1, 15 KOs). Some of boxing fans feel this isn’t a mismatch, but it clearly is. O’Sullivan was beaten easily by Billy Joe Saunders two years ago in losing a 12 round decision in a fight that O’Sullivan won only one round. If that doesn’t tell you anything about his limited talent than I don’t know what does.
The other fights on the card are all non-title fights with lightweight Kevin Mitchell, cruiserweight Tony Bellew and lightweight Luke Campbell all fighting opponents still to be determined. I’m sorry, but this isn’t a good enough undercard for me to want to pay to see this fight card. Bellew isn’t going to be challenging for a world title against IBF cruiserweight champion Victor Ramirez.
Instead of fighting for a world title, Bellew will be taking a likely stay busy fight to get him ready for a title shot. In other words, we’re probably going to see Bellew in another mismatch against some fodder opponent like we’ve seen in his last two fights against Ivica Bucurin and Arturs Kulikauskis. Kevin Mitchell also likely won’t be fighting anyone of note. He’s interested in a rematch against IBF lightweight champion Jorge Linares, and he’s not about to risk losing out on that nice payday opportunity by taking a risky fight against someone with talent.
I for one hope that Hearn resists the notion of trying to make the Joshua-Whyte fight a PPV fight card because there’s just nothing there other than the main event for the fight fans to see. If you’re asking boxing fans to see a bunch of mismatches on the uncard, then I don’t think that would be the right way to go. Eubank Jr. is going to likely clown O’Sullivan, and I really can’t see Hearn matching Bellew, Campbell or Mitchell against opponents that will have a chance of winning. The A-side fighters will likely have all the advantages in this fight card over their B-side opponents, and I don’t want to see fights like that; not if I have to pay to see them.
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