By Scott Gilfoid: A purse bid that was scheduled for Thursday of this week for the IBF heavyweight title eliminator between for Kubrat Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs) and Dillian Whyte (23-1, 17 KOs) has been postponed until May 24, according to Dan Rafael. The winner of the Whyte-Pulev fight will be the IBF mandatory for IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs).
It’s believed that Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing and Pulev’s promoters are close to a deal, so they decided to postpone the purse bid for another week to get the fight done.
Whyte, 29, already fought Joshua in 2015 and was knocked out in the 7th round. Whyte wants a rematch. The fight would pay Whyte more than he’ll get facing anyone else, so it doesn’t matter if he loses again. Whyte will make a bundle in losing to Joshua a second time. Whyte still has the option of facing Luis Ortiz in a WBC heavyweight title eliminator, but he doesn’t like that fight nearly as much as the Pulev fight. Some boxing fans think Whyte is afraid of fighting Ortiz.
Whyte says that he’ll fight Ortiz if WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder will guarantee him a title shot immediately. Wilder is trying to negotiate a fight against Joshua though. If he doesn’t fight Joshua next, then Wilder has his WBC mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale that he could fight next. There’s no upside in Wilder fighting Whyte.
Whyte has turned his career around since losing to Joshua three years ago. He’s now won his last 7 fights, albeit against mostly weak opposition. Whyte has accumulated victories over these fighters since 2016: Ivica Bacurin, David Allen, Ian Lewison, Dereck Chisora (*controversial decision*), Malcolm Tann, Robert Helenius and Lucas Browne.
On paper, Whyte’s last two wins over Helenius and Browne look like good victories over world level contenders, but in reality, those were low level opponents. Helenius had been beaten easily recently by former heavyweight world title challenger Johann Duhaupas by a 6th round knockout in April 2016, and Lucas Browne, 39, looked old, flabby and out of shape.
You almost have to rate Browne and Helenius at the same level as David Allen. They both were awful. As such, the only decent opponent Whyte has fought since 2016 is Chisora, and he appeared to lose to him. Whyte was given a 12 round split decision, but a lot of boxing fans thought he lost. I personally had Chisora winning the fight by 4 rounds. I couldn’t give Whyte the win because he kept getting rocked by hard shots from Chisora. Three times in the fight, Whyte was hurt and close to being knocked out.
The best thing that Whyte has going for him is he’s one of Eddie Hearn’s stable fighters. If not for that, he’d be no better off than any other contender. But with Hearn’s help, Whyte is now close to getting a title shot against Joshua if he can get past the 36-year-old Pulev. That’s a big if though, because Pulev can fight and has a great jab. The trouble for Pulev is that if he fights Whyte, it’s likely going to take place in the UK, and it could be hard for him to win a decision over there. As the visiting fighter, Pulev might need a knockout over Whyte for him to get his hand raised at the end of the fight.
The 37-year-old Pulev has compiled five victories since losing for former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko four years ago in 2014. Pulev has a good 12 round split decision win over Chisora in 2016. That was a one-sided fight, but one of the judges somehow gave it to Chisora by a 115-113 score.
”I do want to fight with Whyte and I think that he is a perfect opponent for me. There are a lot of things that need to be agreed on before setting a date,” Pulev said on his website.
If the Pulev vs. Whyte deal doesn’t get made, then it could go to a purse bid on May 24. There’s also a possibility that Pulev’s promoter Nisse Sauerland could have him go in another direction. It would be a pity for Pulev to give on the Whyte fight, because if he wins that fight, he would be locked in for a title fight against IBF champion Joshua. Pulev was set to fight Joshua in 2017, but he suffered a shoulder injury two week before the fight and had to pull out. Carlos Takam stepped in and replaced Pulev and lost to Joshua by a 10th round knockout on October 28, 2017 in Cardiff, Wales. Pulev would have stood a better chance of beating Joshua than the smallish 6’1” Takam, who was too light and too short to get the job done.
”I hope we can get the details thrashed out and get it on. I expect it to happen and July 28 has
been talked about as a potential date,” Pulev’s promoter Nisse Sauerland said to skysports.com.
It’s good that Sauerland is upbeat about getting the Pulev vs. Whyte fight done. That would be the fastest way for Pulev to get a title shot. Pulev is ranked No.4 with the World Boxing Association. There would be a possibility of him fighting WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight champion Manuel Charr if he beats Fres Oquendo. Who knows how long Pulev would need to wait for that fight. It could be ages.
“Whyte is the focus for us, but we’re not waiting on him. If he doesn’t want the fight, then we move on,” Sauerland said.
I think Whyte wants the Pulev fight because he believes he can win it. You can tell when Whyte has doubts about a fight. He starts complaining, as we’ve seen recently when the Whyte learned of the news that the World Boxing Council had ordered him to fight Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz in a WBC title eliminator to get a crack at Wilder. Instead of being pleased at being able to earn a title shot against Wilder, Whyte bellyached about it, and was unhappy. Many fans read Whyte’s reaction to the WBC’s order for him to fight Ortiz as a sign that he was afraid of him.
Sauerland would like to stage the Pulev vs. Whyte fight in Bulgaria if possible. It’s highly unlikely that Whyte and Hearn will agree to that.