By Trevor McIntyre: Dillian Whyte (25-1, 18 KOs) left no doubt in his rematch against Dereck Chisora (29-9, 21 KOs) who the better fighter is between them on Saturday night in stopping him in the 11th round with a scary-looking knockout on Sky Box Office at the O2 Arena in London, England.
At the time the fight ended in the 11th, Chisora was winning the fight on two of the judges’ scorecards by the scores 95-94, 95-94, while Whyte was up by a 95-94 score on the third. Boxing News 24 had Chisora winning by a 95-94 score.
Without the two point deductions against Chisora, the fight might have been different. The referee over-involved himself, and chose to call some fouls on one side while ignoring a lot of fouling from Whyte. When there’s equal fouling, a referee should take points from both sides or simply give warnings. This referee decided just to penalize Chisora, and it looked a little odd the way he did that.
Whyte, 30, took advantage of Chisora’s lapse of concentration after a second point deduction for low blows, and he nailed him with a big left to the head that sent the 34-year-old down flat on his back. The referee stopped the fight on the spot. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:56 of round 11. Chisora had points deducted for low blows in rounds eight and eleven. It appeared that the referee was coming down hard on Chisora, but letting Whyte get away with a lot of low blows and rabbit punches. Given that there was a lot of fouling from both fighters, the referee looked out of place in putting a taint to the fight by inserting himself into the equation in twice deducting points from Chisora.
Thankfully the 2 point deductions didn’t have a bearing on the outcome of the fight, as it would have been a shame if those two points were the margins for Whyte’s victory tonight. However, Chisora’s desperation after the second point deduction may have ultimately left him vulnerable to a left hook counter from Whyte. Chisora looked angry after being penalized a second time, and he might have lost his head by leaving himself open by loading up o a badly telegraphed shot.
The fight was highly competitive from start to the bitter finish with both fighters standing in the center of the ring, throwing huge bombs. Chisora did a great job of working Whyte’s body with hard punches. Some of them strayed low on occasion, but most looked to be thrown to the belt line. The referee seemed to a little out of control in his policing of the low blows from Chisora, while ignoring the arguably more dangerous rabbit punches that Whyte was hitting Chisora with throughout the fight. The referee either didn’t see Whyte’s rabbit punches or he chose to ignore them, and focus instead on the belt line shots that Chisora was throwing.
The win for Whyte was his second over Chisora. Two years ago, Whyte defeated Chisora by a controversial 12 round split decision in December 2016. Most boxing fans felt that Chisora was given a bad deal with that loss. Tonight though, Whyte left no question who the better fighter was between them.
After the fight, Whyte said that he’s earned the right to face IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on April 13 on Sky Box Office at Wembley Stadium in London, UK. However, Joshua told the boxing fans that he still wants WBC champion Deontay Wilder for that date. However, if he can’t get the fight with Wilder, then Whyte could be the guy that he faces.
“Credit to Dillian, but you know how the list goes,” Joshua said to Sky Sports Box Office after tonight’s fight. “If it’s not Deontay Wilder and Whyte gets made, I don’t want to hear boos.”
Whyte said this in response to Joshua: “I deserve my shot, I’ve worked my way up!”
It’s pretty clear that Whyte is Joshua’s best bet for a big payday on April 13 if he and his promoter Eddie Hearn don’t want to give Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) a percentage split or even close to the money that he’s asking for to take the fight. It’s not a good a sign that Hearn and Joshua are still talking about only wanting to give Wilder a flat fee for the April 13 fight. That means that they don’t see Wilder as bringing enough to the table for him to be worth giving a percentage deal like they did for the unification fight against former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker last March.
Joshua and Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn tried to make a case to the fans after the fight by saying that Whyte is the guy that should be fighting AJ if Wilder won’t take the fight.
“If Deontay Wilder doesn’t want to fight Anthony, then I think it should be Dillian Whyte,” Hearn said.
Whether Hearn will put forth a real attempt to make the Joshua vs. Wilder fight or merely go through the motions is the unknown question. If Hearn is really interested in making the Joshua-Whyte 2 fight, he can continue to give Wilder offers that he’ll never accept in a million years. Hearn can then tell the boxing public that he tried his best, but Wilder wouldn’t accept his fair deal. What the boxing fans would never know is how much Hearn offered Wilder. If it’s a flat fee that comes out to somewhere along the lines of a split of 85-15, then it’s clear that Hearn was never serious about wanting to make the Joshua vs. Wilder fight.
Hearn made it clear that if he doesn’t make the Joshua vs. Whyte rematch for April 13, it’s only a matter of time before he does eventually make that fight. That’s the one Hearn wants to make, and it’s going to happen sooner or later. The boxing public isn’t excited about that fight obviously, but it works for Hearn, since he promotes Joshua and Whyte.
“It’s a matter of when, not if, because I think Dillian Whyte is going to become the WBO mandatory,” Hearn said.
As you can see, Hearn is giving the boxing public that Whyte is going to get a fight against Joshua sooner or later. If Whyte doesn’t fight Joshua on April 13, he’ll face him as soon as the World Boxing Organization orders the two to face each other. Hearn sounds like he’s going to make the Joshua vs. Whyte rematch on April 13. It might make things easier once he does. If Joshua can defeat Whyte in a conclusive manner, then it won’t be fight that Hearn can go back to anytime soon for a third match. That’ll leave only Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller, who Hearn also promotes, as the last man standing between Wilder and Joshua.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTUz19dUG_w