Kubrat Pulev accepts IBF eliminator against Dillian Whyte

By Boxing News - 04/04/2018 - Comments

Image: Kubrat Pulev accepts IBF eliminator against Dillian Whyte

By Scott Gilfoid: Former world title challenger Kubrat Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs) has accepted the IBF heavyweight title eliminator fight against Matchroom Boxing fighter Dillian Whyte (23-1, 17 KOs) to determine the mandatory challenger to IBF champion Anthony Joshua. If the Pulev vs. Whyte IBF eliminator match takes place, it’ll happen in June.

It’s now up to Whyte to decide whether he wants to take the fight with the 36-year-old Pulev or not. Whyte is already rated No.1 with the World Boxing Council, although he’s still NOT the WBC mandatory challenger. Before Whyte can get a shot against Wilder, he’ll likely need to face one of the top contenders in a WBC title eliminator at some point. Even then, Whyte is probably looking at 2019 or 2020 before he gets a crack at the WBC belt. The IBF route is much quicker if Whyte chooses to go down that path for a title shot against Joshua.

Pulev’s promoter Nisse Sauerland says he’s agreed to take the fight with Whyte for the IBF eliminator. Pulev had an opportunity to fight Joshua on October 28 in Cardiff, Wales, but he suffered a shoulder injury while training and had to pull out of the fight. Carlos Takam took Pulev’s place and did an admirable job of giving Joshua a hard fight before the referee prematurely halted the fight in the 10h, giving AJ the stoppage win.

If Whyte fancies the fight with Pulev, then Sauerland will need to iron out a deal with Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn for June. The fight will likely take place in the UK. I don’t think it matters. There will likely be a clear winner in this fight.

”Just recieved a letter from the IBF ordering a final eliminator for the mandatory position between Dillian Whyte and Kubrat Pulev – interesting times for the division!” Hearn said on his Twitter.

Now the question is does Whyte, 29, take the fight with Pulev or not. This is not the same type of easy fight for Whyte that he had in his last three mismatches against Lucas Browne, Robert Helenius and Malcolm Tann. Those guys were all long in the tooth and not the same fighters they once were when they fought Whyte. Pulev, 6’4 ½”, is up there in age as well at 36-years-old, but he’s still fighting at a high level, and he’s got excellent boxing skills. Whyte had a slow, overweight and inactive opponent in Lucas Browne facing him in his last fight on March 24 at the O2 Arena in London, and it was too easy for him. The 38-year-old Browne has never had good hand speed even during his best years, but he looked like he’d slowed down from the age, inactivity and weight gain. At 263 pounds, Browne was far too heavy to be fighting a guy like Whyte. It surprising that with all the time that Browne had to train that he didn’t come in lighter for the Whyte match. Browne should have been no heavier than 250 lbs., and ideally he probably should have come in at 240. Oh well, it was a missed opportunity for him.

“I just hope Dillian accepts it, we have,” Nisse Sauerland said to skysports.com. “We have accepted the position and we’re ready to go.”

Whyte has four possible directions he can go in to earn a title shot and they are as follows:

• Fight Pulev in IBF eliminator to become Joshua’s mandatory

• Face Alexander Povetkin to become WBA mandatory to Joshua

• Continue to pursue WBC mandatory position to face Wilder

• Wait to fight for WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight title against the winner of the Manuel Charr vs. Fres Oquendo fight

The money Whyte can make facing Pulev in June in Bulgaria will likely give ‘The Body Snatcher’ his biggest payday in the near term. If Whyte wants a nice little payday to whet his beak, he can likely get that facing the Bulgarian Pulev, but it would probably need to take place in his home country of Bulgaria in front of his own boxing fans. Pulev is a big name in Bulgaria despite the fact that he’s never won a world title and that he failed in his only title shot against former IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in losing a 5th round knockout on November 15, 2014. That was four years ago, and it’s taken Pulev a long time to get in position to try and fight for another title. Pulev had the opportunity to get a huge payday against Joshua last October, but he was injured and he didn’t want to take the fight under those conditions. You can argue that a lot of fighters would have still taken the fight just so they could get the payday, but Pulev had too much class to do that.

”June could work definitely. Kubrat’s in training again, so it would work well. He’s recovered from the injury and ready to go again,” Sauerland said.

Pulev vs. Whyte will make money whether it takes place in England or Bulgaria. Whyte has built a fan base for himself in the UK since his 7th round stoppage loss to Joshua in December 2015. Whyte has won his last 7 fights, albeit against beatable opposition. Whyte hasn’t faced a real threat to beating him during the last two years, although he came very close to losing to bottom dweller fringe contender Dereck Chisora in December 2016. That fight looked like a loss to Whyte, but he somehow it made it through the contest to earn a controversial 12 round split decision.

Whyte says his surgically repaired left shoulder is once again at full strength. He knocked Browne out with a left hook in the 6th round. I disagree. Whyte’s left hook before his shoulder surgery was much more powerful than what we saw in his fight with Browne. I think there’s a good chance that Whyte’s left hook will never be the same as it was before he suffered the shoulder injury unfortunately. That’s just how it goes sometimes. If you remember Jeff ‘Left Hook’ Lacy, he had a monstrous left hook that he threw to score knockouts in many of his fights. But after Lacy suffered a left shoulder injury, his power never came back in that arm. It’s been roughly 2 ½ years since Whyte’s shoulder surgery. If he hasn’t been able to regain his punching power at this point, I think it’s safe to say it’ll never come back. The thing is, Whyte doesn’t have a powerful right hand to fall back on, which is why he mostly relies on his jabs to win fights.

I suspect that Whyte and Hearn will reject the Pulev fight due to the substantial risk that match-up brings him. I see Whyte continuing to go down the path to try and get a title shot against Wilder.