By Scott Gilfoid: Despite the HUGE interest from the British boxing public in a fight between Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (29-1, 25 KOs) and Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte (24-1, 17 KOs), Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn still has high level journeyman Dereck Chisora (29-8, 21 KOs) as the front-runner for Dillian’s December 22 fight on Sky Box Office PPV in London, England.
Chisora made a huge £5m offer to Whyte last month for a rematch. However, there are a lot of doubts from boxing fans that Chisora can come up with the money for that fight. There’s also a lot of people who think Whyte vs. Chisora won’t sell on Sky Box Office PPV. It would be a shame if the rematch does anemic sales on PPV. It would be an example of Hearn overestimating the worth of a retread fight. Sometimes it’s better to move on rather than shoving the same tired fight down the throats of the public. A better fight for Whyte be a rematch against Joseph Parker in a neutral country like the U.S, as a lot of boxing fans think the New Zealand fighter was robbed in London at the O2 Arena. Whyte was given credit for a bogus knockdown in round 2 of the Parker fight after head-butting him. After that, Whyte was fouling like mad with rabbit hots, and getting away with it.
In a poll on Michael Benson’s twitter, the fans overwhelmingly have picked Ortiz a the opponent that they want to see Whyte fighting on December 22, and not Chisora, who is trailing in last place. Rematches make sense when you’re talking about matches between popular fighters like Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin. But when you’ve got guys like Whyte and Chisora, it’s better to move on and match them against other guys. Chisora still has Agit Kabayel and Kubrat Pulev problems. If anything, Hearn needs to put Chisora back in with those guys, as they beat him and not too long ago. How does Hearn not try and put Chisora back inside the ring with the guys that beat Del Boy? Matching Chisora against yet another fighter that has beaten him in the past is frankly pointless. Whyte-Chisora would make sense if there wasn’t a far more interesting fight available for Dillian, and if the fight were to take place in a neutral country. Having Chisora fight Whyte again is only going to lead to the same problem as in the first fight. In other words, Whyte will be the A-side fighter, and the judges will likely give it to him if it goes to the scorecards. Having Whyte involved in yet another controversial decision will ruin him as the Plan-A option for Anthony Joshua’s April 13 fight at Wembley Stadium.
What seems apparent is the wily Hearn isn’t interested in matching Whyte against the Cuban talent Ortiz and watching him knock him out and ruining his vision of a retread fight against Anthony Joshua on April 13 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Hearn wants to make the rematch between Joshua and Whyte in the worst way.
“Dillian Whyte will be boxing December 22, whatever happens, and I think it will be against Chisora,” Hearn said to skysports.com. “Chisora is still definitely the front-runner.”
Hearn seen as carefully protecting the 30-year-old Whyte by not wanting to match him against Ortiz. The fans, both in the UK and worldwide, overwhelmingly want to see Whyte face Ortiz rather than facing Chisora again, but Hearn doesn’t want the Whyte-Ortiz fight. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the boxing fans want to see. If Hearn has his mind made up that he wants Whyte to fight Chisora, which it’s clear that he has, then that’s the fight that will be taking place on December 22. If for some reason Chisora can’t make the fight due to injury or whatever, it’s still unlikely that Ortiz will get the fight against Whyte. Hearn mentioning that he has Ortiz AND Dominic Breazeale as the Plan-B options for Whyte’s December 22 fight shows that he already has the American Dominic on standby in case of injury to Chisora.
Last week, Hearn said that the Whyte vs. Chisora 2 fight must be finalized this coming week or else he’s going to need to look in another direction for an opponent for Dillian to fight on December 22. However, it’s likely that Hearn will stick it out in the Whyte-Chisora negotiations until the week of the fight if need be. Hearn is like a dog that has got his teeth on an old bone [the tired retread Whyte-Chisora fight], and he doesn’t want to let go of it no matter how hard you try and pull it from his clenched teeth. Hearn is going to cram the Whyte vs. Chisora 2 fight down the throats of the boxing fans whether they like it or not.
Hearn justifies his choice of Chisora for Whyte’s December 22 fight by saying that Ortiz is already scheduled to fight on December 1 on the undercard of Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It’s unclear why Ortiz wouldn’t reveal this if it were true. Ortiz has a say so in the fights that he takes, and the only name that he’s mentioning is Whyte. As such, you have to believe that Whyte isn’t scheduled to fight on December 1 as Hearn says he is. of course, by Hearn saying that Ortiz is already scheduled to fight on December 1 on the Wilder-Fury card, it gets some of the boxing fans off his back. Unfortunately for Hearn, most boxing fans believe that Ortiz is free and available to fight Whyte on December 22, and that’s the fight that the fans ant to see, not the retread fight between Dillian and Chisora. The fans already saw Whyte beat Chisora by a controversial 12 round split decision two years ago in December 2016, and they don’t want to see them fight each other again. The judges arguably robbed Chisora in that fight, and it left a bad taste in the mouths of the boxing fans. The fans don’t want to see the pair face each other again, which isn’t surprising. Anytime a fight ends in controversy with the A-side guy getting a gift decision by the judges, as we clearly saw with Whyte beating Chisora, the fans don’t want to see a rematch.
“Ortiz is scheduled to fight on the Wilder-Fury card on December 1 and wanted to make some noise by saying, ‘I want to fight Dillian Whyte,'” Hearn said.
Hearn doesn’t want Ortiz, 39, for Whyte,even though it’s a fight that the boxing world prefer to see. Ortiz schooling Whyte and revealing that how limited he is as a fighter would spoil Hearn’s goal of matching Whyte against Joshua on April 13, because it’s painfully obvious that he’s his only option for that fight. WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder’s name is mentioned constantly by Hearn as the guy that he and Joshua both want for the April 13 fight, but it’s probably going to Whyte that winds up facing him. It’s the worst secret in boxing that Whyte will be the one that is sharing the ring with Joshua on the 13th of April at Wembley Stadium.
Hearn likes to say that he wants to give the boxing fans the fights that they want to see, but the truth is often the opposite. Hearn hasn’t matched Luis Ortiz against Whyte or Anthony Joshua since he started promoting them, and you have to believe that it’s not a fight that he fancies.