13,000 tickets sold for Whyte-Chisora2 after day 1

By Boxing News - 11/03/2018 - Comments

Image: 13,000 tickets sold for Whyte-Chisora2 after day 1

By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn is saying that 13,000 tickets were already sold for the heavyweight rematch between Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte and Dereck ‘Delboy’ Chisora for their fight on Sky Box Office on December 22 at the O2 Arena in London, England.

The seating capacity of the O2 Arena is 20,000. This means that the Whyte-Chisora 2 fight should be completely sold out within a week if Hearn is on the level about the ticket sales. This same Whyte-Chisora 2 fight would be lucky to sell 2,000 tickets tops if it took place in the U.S. The boxing fans in the United States are particular about the fights they pay to see. They like to see talented guys that have the ability to win world titles. You can argue that Chisora and Whyte aren’t capable of winning world titles. Chisora already failed at winning a world title when he was beaten by former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in 2012.

There are a lot of angry boxing fans at having to purchase the Whyte vs. Chisora 2 fight on pay-per-view instead of being able to see it without paying extra. What bothers the fans especially is that the only justification for the Whyte-Chisora2 rematch is the controversy surrounding their first fight two years ago. If the judges had scored the fight the way the boxing public saw it, Chisora would have won and there would be no reason for him to face Whyte again. The judges made a mess out of scoring the fight in the eyes of the fans.

Whyte is taking his career backwards in facing 35-year-old Chisora in a retread fight. Hearn is bragging that the tickets are flying off the shelves like hot cakes. Whyte wanted the fight with Chisora rather than putting heat on Hearn to get him fights against guys that he hasn’t fought before like Luis Ortiz, Dominic Breazeale or Alexander Povetkin. Hearn is setting the table for Whyte to fight Anthony Joshua in April. Chisora is the beatable guy that Hearn has found for Whyte to fight. Ideally, Whyte will do better this time than he did the last time he fought Chisora in 2016 in winning a controversial decision.

Hearn’s decision to reveal the ticket numbers for the Whyte vs. Chisora2 rematch is indication that he wants to use this as a way of getting WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder to agree to a smaller purse for his fight against Anthony Joshua on April 13 at Wembley Stadium in London. In comparison, Wilder’s fight against Tyson Fury on December 1 solid 6,000 tickets in the first day of being on sale. As such, Hearn decision to reveal the ticket sales for the Whyte-Chisora rematch is a way of showing Wilder that he doesn’t rate anywhere close to the 50-50 purse split that he’s asking for to face Joshua in April.

Hearn says 13,000 tickets have been sold, but it would be better if someone neutral was the one making this news announcement. I mean, it’s not as if Hearn doesn’t have anything to gain by the boxing public believing that 13K tickets were sold on the first day for the Whyte vs. Chisora2 fight. If the fans hear a promoter bragging about 13,000 tickets having been scooped up, it’s something that would likey make them want to rush to buy their own tickets before they’re gone. If the fans think there’s only limited tickets, they’re more likely to [urchase them. For that reason, it’s hard to not to be skeptical when hearing Hearn brag about the ticket sales for the Whyte vs. Chisora 2 fight. On social media, a lot of boxing fans are turned off by the Chisora-Whyte 2 fight, as it’s a retread fight and nothing something news.

It’s frankly shocking that the boxing public is willing to purchase tickets to see the Whyte vs. Chisora 2 rematch. The fans wanted to see Whyte face Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz, but Hearn had tunnel vision all the way. Hearn only wanted Chisora for Whyte to fight. The perception here is Hearn likely knew that Ortiz would beat Whyte badly, and prevent him from being used by the wily promoter for Joshua’s April 13 opponent at Wembley Stadium in London. Whyte already beat Chisora two years ago. Chisora was beaten by Agit Kabayel last year in getting out-boxed. Yeah, Chisora won his last fight against Carlos Takam, but that was a fighter that had been knocked last year in October by Joshua. Takam isn’t the same guy that was impressing earlier in his career. Takam is now 37-years-old and has lost 3 out of his last 5 fights. He clearly didn’t deserve a title shot against Joshua last year, and yet he got it anyway.

It’s believed by many that Hearn wants Whyte as the opponent for Joshua to fight in April, and not Wilder. The more than Hearn stresses how good the ticket sales are for the Whyte-Chisora II rematch, it makes it easy for him to justify Whyte as the the more deserving opponent for Joshua to fight in April rather than Deontay. The thing is, Hearn can only recycle the same opponent for Joshua so much without turning off the boxing public. The fans already Joshua knockout Whyte in the 7th round in late 2015, so there’s not real mystery about which of the two is going to win the fight. The same goes for the Whyte-Chisora 2 recycled fight. Whyte already beat Chisora in 2016, and now Hearn is putting them back into the ring with each other instead of bringing in new blood for Dillian to fight like Luis Ortiz or Dominic Breazeale. The stale match-making that Hearn is doing is insular and club-like. When you get a promoter that prefers to match his own fighters against each other the way Hearn is doing, you end up seeing countless rematches. Hearn comes across like he’s afraid to see his fighters Joshua and Whyte beaten by other fighters.

Chisora lost to Whyte by a disputed 12 round split decision in December 2016. Most of the boxing world saw it as a robbery. The decision was made to look worse when Whyte chose to move on and fight other guys for the next two years instead of giving Chisora a rematch.

Whyte is ranked #1 by the WBC and WBO but the only solid win during the last three years is his victory over Joseph Parker last July. That fight was controversial too, as Whyte got rammed Parker accidentally with his head in the 2nd round and knocked him to the canvas. The referee Ian John Lewis gave Whyte credit for the knockdown. Parker looked like the better fighter, but Whyte was given the decision. Whyte also beat former WBA heavyweight champion Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne. There was nothing controversial about that fight. Browne was badly out of shape, and old looking at 39. It wasn’t the Browne that we saw two years earlier in stopping Ruslan Chagaev in the 10th round in March 2016. Browne aged in the last two years, and he put on a lot of weight.

“I believe that I’ll knock him out in devastating fashion this time,” Whyte said to Sky Sports News. “This is going to be the donkey’s final destination. This will be Chisora’s last fight, the donkey’s last ride. I think that he needs to really have a good think about taking this fight, because he’s going to be heading home after it looking like he’s been run over by a truck,” Whyte said.

Whyte lacks the punching power to knockout Chisora, period. It sounds good that Whyte is talking about knocking out Chisora, but it’s unlikely to happen. Whyte is a slapper, not a puncher. When he does knockout guys, it’s the weaker fighters or the faded, old and overweight guys like Lucas Browne. If anyone is going to score a knockout in the Whyte-Chisora fight on December 22, it’s going to be Chisora. He has the much better punching power, and his punch placement is top notch. Chisora knows how to throw the perfect looping shots that tend to land to the back of his opponent’s heads. In other words, Chisora is a great rabbit puncher. He’s dangerous in that respect for anyone in the heavyweight division. If Chisora can land his looping shots to the back of Whyte’s head like he’s been doing his entire career, then he’s got a chance to knock him out.

It’s difficult to picture Chisora retiring after he loses the rematch against Whyte. With Hearn’s habit of doing rematches, all Chisora needs to do is take five or six soft touches, and sooner or later, Hearn will look his way to put him in with Whyte for a trilogy fight. Like with the December 22 rematch, the boxing public isn’t going to ask for the Whyte vs. Chisora 3 fight, but they’re likely going to get it anyway whether they want it or not. Hearn likes doing rematches, so it’s not going to be end game for Chisora. It’s unlikely that Deontay will bother throwing a bone to Chisora. There’s no interest from the U.S boxing fans in seeing a guy with what will likely be nine losses on his record after he faces Whyte on December 22.