By Tim Royner: Dereck Chisora isn’t worried about what will be coming back at him from Dillian Whyte on Saturday night because he has no punching power. Chisora (29-8, 21 KOs) tasted Whyte’s power two years ago in December 2016, and he was not impressed in the least. Whyte slapping with his left hook, which at one time was a powerful weapon for him, and his right hand was missing power as well. With nothing to worry about from Whyte, Chisora calmly walked him down and punished him for 12 rounds. Afterwards, Chisora expected to have his hand raised by the referee, but instead it was the A-side fighter Dillian (24-1, 17 KOs) that was triumphant on the night.
Both fighters need this fight for the Anthony Joshua lottery for his April 13 fight. Although it’s still not certain that Joshua will fight in April, there’s a chance that he win. If he does, then Whyte will have a great shot of getting that fight if he wins on Saturday against Chisora. The same can’t be said about Chisora. If he wins, then he most definitely won’t be getting the Joshua fight. At best, he’ll fight one of the top contenders in the division to try and lock himself in as a secondary mandatory challenger. At worst, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn could stick Chisora in with domestic level heavyweight Dave Allen.
“Dillian has no power punch which worries me. I was born with my strength and power, I don’t need to lift weights to boost myself and have power,” Chisora said to Sky Sports News. “I’ve just concentrated mainly on cardio for this training camp.”
The boxing world gave the fight to Chisora, but that didn’t help him. He needed to be given the win by the judges. By them scoring it for Whyte, it hurt Dereck’s career, and led to some disappointing performance against Agit Kabayel in 2017. That was a fight that Chisora wins 99 out of 100 times, but he was unmotivated and looked in bad shape for the fight. Just how much of that was fallout from his loss to Whyte is hard to know It was a crushing defeat for Chisora not to get the ‘W’ against Whyte. With a fight like that, it wasn’t a good idea for Chisora to be put in with a mobile heavyweight that was just looking to spoil for 12 rounds in Kabayel in their fight in December 2017 in Monte Carlo.
It’s smart for Chisora to be focusing on his conditioning for this fight, as that was his issue the last time he fought Whyte. Chisora kept unloading on Whyte with long sustained flurries, and he ended up gassing out after each storm of shots. Chisora hurt Whyte with the flurries, but he was able to stay on his feet and come back. Whyte took advantage of Chisora tiring from the blizzard of shots that he was throwing. However, Chisora still looked like he got the better of Whyte in the end, but he wasn’t the main attraction in the fight. Whyte was the lead guy, and it’s always difficult for the B-side fighter that is brought in as the opponent to get the decision against the home fighter.
“He needs to lift so many weights to feel like he has power,” Chisora said of Whyte’s now chiseled look. “I thought I won the first fight and most people did as well. They gave it to him because of all the antics beforehand, the British Board didn’t want me winning.”
Whyte, 30, has dramatically changed the way his physique looks in the last year. He’s no longer the flabby fighter he’d been for most of his career. He now looks the part of a top heavyweight contender. Whyte’s punching power doesn’t match the look of his new physique. Adding muscle and losing fat has not resulted in Whyte becoming a harder thrower. The only visible result in Whyte’s game is he seems more tight, mechanical and less fluid. He doesn’t seem to be hitting harder, and his mobility is not as good as it once was due to all the muscles he’s packed on his frame. Whyte as clearly a better heavyweight years ago before he started hitting the weights and before he suffered a left shoulder injury in 2015.
Dillian Whyte’s left hook no longer the weapon it once was
Due to his shoulder problems, Whyte is now more of a pure boxer now than the slugger. His bread & butter punch was always his left hook. That was the shot that he used to KO his opponents. But ever since his shoulder surgery, he’s not been able to bring the power back in that arm. Whyte now wins by slapping and jabbing his opponents. To his credit, Whyte does still get an occasional knockout, but those wins have come against weak heavyweights like Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne, Malcolm Tann and Ivica Bacurin. In Whyte’s eight fights since his loss to Joshua, he’s only knocked out three of his opponents during that two year time frame. Whyte has been transmogrified from a slugger to a boxer. The boxing public still hasn’t fully come to terms with the new Dillian Whyte that exists today. A lot of fans are still stuck on the image of the big puncher Whyte that existed up until his shoulder injury in 2015. The fans don’t realize that Whyte’s main weapon, his left hand, isn’t the same after his shoulder surgery. The boxing fans continue to expect Whyte to knockout all his opponents. When that doesn’t happen, they’re left wondering why. They haven’t looked up Whyte’s career, and found out about his shoulder injury and his subsequent surgery. Whyte is now arguably the equivalent of Jeff ‘Left Hook’ Lacy, a fighter had a devastating left hook earlier in his career, but was never the same puncher after he injured his left shoulder fighting Vitaliy Tsypko in December 2006. Like Lacy, Whyte suffered a left shoulder injury, and he’s not been the power puncher he once was ever since.
Whyte s. Chisora 2 will be televised on Sky Sports Box Office this Saturday, December 22, and on SHOWTIME Boxing International LIVE at 5:30 ET/2:30 PT.
