By Scott Gilfoid: If British fight promoter Eddie Hearn gets his way, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) will be facing his fighter #9 WBC Dillian Whyte (20-1, 15 KOs) in his next fight after his title defense against fringe level heavyweight Andrzej Wawrzyk (33-1, 19 KOs) on February 25 at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.
Hearn wants Wilder to defend against the 28-year-old Whyte in May. The winner of the Wilder-Whyte fight would then face the winner of the April 29 fight between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko.
Whyte had a controversial 12 round split decision win over Dereck Chisora last month on December 10. The boxing public overwhelmingly had Chisora winning the fight, but it was Hearn’s fighter Whyte who got the nod. Some boxing fans feel that Chisora would have won had he been with Hearn’s stable of fighters at Matchroom Sport. Gilfoid saw the fight, and he scored it an easy 8 rounds to 4 win for Chisora. There was no doubt about it in my mind that Chisora was the better fighter.
It’s kind of sad that Whyte doesn’t want to clear up the controversy surrounding the decision to face Chisora again, because it would help the boxing fans get some closure if the two of them fought each other again, as long as the decision wasn’t another controversial one with Whyte winning another fight that he appeared to lose.
The judges scored the fight 115-113, 115-114 for Whyte, and 115-114 for Chisora. I had it 116-112 for Chisora. I couldn’t get it to Whyte, because he kept getting hurt left and right. There were two or three occasions where Whyte looked out on his feet after getting really belted by Chisora. In light of that dreadful performance by Whyte, I don’t see him being worthy of a title shot.
If anyone deserves a title shot against Wilder, it’s Chisora in my opinion. It would be sending the wrong message to the boxing world if Wilder fought a guy like Whyte, who would be coming into the fight with the aroma of controversy following him into the ring. How could the boxing world respect Wilder’s choice of fighting Whyte with him coming off of a controversial decision over Chisora. I’m just saying.
Hearn said this to skysports.com about his desire to have Wilder fight his heavyweight Whyte in May:
“I want to see Dillian Whyte against Deontay Wilder,” Hearn said. “Wilder is coming back with this fight in February against the Polish gentleman, which is just a keep-busy fight for him, so what about Dillian Whyte in May? Klitschko and Joshua are fighting, and maybe the winners of those two fights meet. It could be Joshua against Wilder at the back end of the year, but let’s see Deontay Wilder in a real fight against another Brit. Let’s see him against Dillian Whyte – that’s a real fight for Deontay Wilder.”
I think it would bad news if Wilder threw a bone to Whyte and Hearn by letting him fight for a world title. If I was Wilder, I’d tell Hearn to have Whyte go back and beat Chisora without controversy, and then I’d fight him. But until then, it’s not a good idea for the fight to take place. I think I speak for a lot of boxing fans who would prefer not to see Wilder face Whyte. I think the fans would rather see Wilder face someone like Kubrat Pulev or Luis Ortiz if he’s going to take another voluntary defense. Facing a guy that is basically coming off of a loss to Chisora is not exactly an appealing fight for Deontay. How does he get motivated for a fight like that?