By Scott Gilfoid: After his 6th round knockout win over Lucas Browne (25-1, 22 KOs) last Saturday night, Dillian Whyte (23-1, 17 KOs) says he’s ready to sit down at the negotiating table with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) to put together a fight against him in June at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Whyte says he’ll bring Wilder a career high purse if he agrees to fight him, and that the two of them will sellout an area. Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s going to increase the offer to Wilder that he made previously, which was an estimated $4 million.
Whyte’s fight with Browne failed to sellout the O2 Arena. The arena looked only half-filled, and maybe not even that. If Whyte can’t sell tickets, then there’s no upside in Wilder agreeing to fight him.
I will sit down and talk to him. I am civilized,” Whyte said to skysports.com. ”I know people think I am an animal but I will sit down and talk to him. There is no reason why he shouldn’t take a fight with me. I am offering him career high purses and it is going to be a good fight. We are going to fill arenas. He has struggled to fill arenas in his hometown. I am not world champion but I packed out the O2.”
Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn is trying his best to rebuild his career, make him look better than he actually is and try and get him a title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder by forcing a mandatory. Hearn has been strategic in the contenders he’s matched Whyte against by putting him in against Dereck Chisora, Lucas Browne and Robert Helenius. Those are all lower level heavyweight contenders. All three of them were fringe level heavyweights. Hearn didn’t put Whyte in against any of the dangerous contenders that could potentially beat him like Luis Ortiz, Alexander Povetkin, Jarrell Miller or Kubrat Pulev. Hearn was smart to match Whyte against Browne, Chisora and Helenius, because those were guys he could beat. I thought Whyte deserved a loss in the Chisora fought though. That seemed like a gift decision to me.
Whyte didn’t pack the O2 last night for his fight with Lucas Browne. There were a lot of empty seats. That doesn’t mean that Wilder wouldn’t still receive a career high payday by agreeing to fight Whyte. Wilder will make excellent money by agreeing to face the 29-year-old Whyte. It might not be worth the risk for Wilder given what he stands to gain by facing IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. That’s the fight Wilder and the boxing world wants to see. At this point, Wilder appears to be the bigger draw than Whyte. Wilder brought in a huge crowd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for his fight against Luis Ortiz earlier this month on March 3.
There seems to be some confusion among boxing fans and Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn about whether or not he’s the WBC mandatory for Wilder. The fact is, Whyte is NOT Wilder’s mandatory yet. The WBC still hasn’t made Whyte the mandatory yet. The chances are high that the World Boxing Council will call for a final eliminator between #1 WBC Whyte and #2 WBC Dominic Breazeale. The WBC kept silent about whether the Whyte vs. Browne fight was an eliminator match. The fact that they didn’t say anything suggests that they’re not going to make Whyte the mandatory for Wilder unless he fights in an official WBC mandated eliminator match, not in a fight where Hearn hand-picks the opponent in Lucas Browne. That move backfired on Hearn, because Whyte still isn’t the mandatory challenger for Wilder. Whyte and Hearn can’t force Wilder to fight. Sorry, that’s not going to work without the WBC’s help, and they would be crazy to order Wilder to take a small money fight against Whyte when there’s a much bigger one out there against Joshua.
With Joshua there are more belts at stake, with Wilder there is one belt,” Whyte said. ”He [Wilder] is probably the easier to beat out of the two.”
Whyte should get on Hearn’s case to line him up with the Joshua fight if his values his two titles so much, because he’s not going to get the Wilder fight. Wilder is waiting for the bigger fight against Joshua, and he’s not going to fall for Hearn’s tricks of taking the lesser fight against Whyte in the UK.
Wilder just finished defending against his mandatory last November. The WBC waits between one to three years before they order their champions to defend against their mandatory challengers. What this means is Wilder doesn’t likely have to worry about being ordered to face his mandatory until 2019. The only thing Hearn can do if he badly wants Wilder to do him a favor and fight Whyte is throw money at him.
I’m sure if Hearn came up with a tremendous offer for the Wilder-Whyte fight, Wilder might accept it. I just don’t think Hearn will do that. At best, he might offer him a little bit more than the $3 million he already offered. Wilder probably won’t even waste his time acknowledging the offer, because he’s already told Hearn his asking price is $7 million.
Whyte and Hearn need to start looking at other options for them for June, because Wilder is not going to take the fight no matter how much money is offered. Here are some good options for Whyte’s net fight in June:
• Joe Joyce
• Dereck Chisora
• Dominic Breazeale
• Kubrat Pulev
• Jarrell Miller
Some of those guys will probably turn down the fight with Whyte, but if Hearn is willing to offer them the same kind of money that he’s already offered with Wilder, then he could get one of them to agree to the fight. Miller, Breazeale, Joyce and Chisora would all likely agree to $3 million to fight Whyte.
There are some good fighters that Whyte can fight in June. All he needs to do is now is have his promoter Eddie Hearn go after him. It would be a good idea for Hearn to start making the calls right now to try and get one of those top contenders for Whyte. Rather than Hearn wasting his time trying to get Wilder to agree to the Whyte fight, he can focus on the more attainable goal of getting one of the above mentioned contenders to agree to fight him.