Dillian Whyte vs. Ian Lewison on October 7

By Boxing News - 09/16/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweight Dillian Whyte (18-1, 14 KO) will be fighting 34-year-old Ian Lewison (12-2-1, 8 KOs) in what appears to be a mismatch on October 7 at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. The Whyte-Lewison fight was made official on Friday. It’ll be taking place on the undercard of World Boxing Association World light welterweight champion Ricky Burns’ first title defense against #1 WBA Kiryl Relikh.

Whyte, who still hasn’t fully regained the strength in his surgically repaired left shoulder from what I can see, will be scrapping with Lewison for the vacant British title. It’ll be sad if this is as far as Whyte goes in his career.

When Whyte started out his pro career in 2011, he looked like he would go far. However, the shoulder injury Whyte sustained in 2015 seems to have taken away his once mind-numbing left hook, and he’s now fighting for British straps rather than heavyweight world titles.

Where would Whyte be if not for his shoulder injury? He probably would have knocked Anthony Joshua out last year in their fight in December if his left shoulder was intact and 100 percent healthy. Whyte then would have fought for the IBF world title and likely have been the champion by now. Instead, Whyte is fighting for the British strap, and it’s unclear whether the power will ever return to his surgically repaired left shoulder.

For Whyte, a win over Lewison will give him three straight wins since being stopped by Joshua in the 7th round last year. Whyte has fought and beaten two 2nd tier fighters in Dave Allen and Ivica Bacurin since his loss to the 6’6” Joshua.

“I’m going to KO him,” Whyte said via espn.com. “He’s dangerous for a couple of rounds, but I’ll show him that I’m the best out of south London. I’m the best. Ian will get banged out, he is going to try and swing because he has got no other choice.”

I don’t think Whyte will be able to get a knockout of the 34-year-old Lewison; not if all he’s got his right hand working for him. In looking at Whyte’s last two fights, he’s not using his left hand for anything other than throwing weak jabs. The left hook is totally gone from his arsenal now, and his right hand isn’t nearly good enough to KO Lewison, who has a very good chin.

If anything, I see Whyte getting tired if he tries to blast Lewison out, and then he’ll up getting hit a lot. In Whyte’s last fight against David Allen, he tried really hard to KO him, but it didn’t work. His right hand power wasn’t enough to bother Allen. The only reason the fight didn’t turn out to be a nightmare for Whyte is because Allen didn’t throw any punches back at him. It looked like Allen was just discouraged and not willing to let his hands go.

Heck, he might as well have thrown some punches, because Whyte was hitting him with right hands over and over again all night long. We didn’t see much in the way of boxing skills from either of these two fighters, and it was just to look at. The good news is that Lewison at least throws punches, so we’re going to see a fight of it. The bad news is Whyte can probably still beat Lewison one-handed by just using his right hand alone.

Lewison will be coming into the fight with a nice little five-fight winning streak going for him. The last time Lewison tasted defeat was back in 2013, when he was beaten by American Derric Rossy in the heavyweight Prizefighter tourney. It was just three rounds, and the fight didn’t tell us anything about Lewison’s boxing skills, chin or power. It was just brawling in it’s primitive form.

“There’s no friends in this game, boxing is a business and he talks a lot like he’s a hard man but he’s just a little tramp. He has been around for years and finally got himself a win in China [on June 24] and a top 15 ranking in the WBO, so I want to beat him and take that ranking,” said Whyte.

I expect Whyte to beat Lewison on October 7 using just his right hand. It would be nice if Whyte regained the strength in his left shoulder so that he could be the dangerous fighter he once was, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. If Whyte still isn’t punching with major power nine months after his surgery, then I just don’t see his shoulder coming back to where it was previously. It’s too bad that Whyte can’t stay out of the ring while he waits for his shoulder to come back, but I guess he has to make a living somehow. I just don’t see Whyte being able to go very far with him stuck using just his right hand.