Bruno says Dillian Whyte should be given title shot with WBC if he beats Oscar Rivas

By Boxing News - 06/11/2019 - Comments

Image: Bruno says Dillian Whyte should be given title shot with WBC if he beats Oscar Rivas

By Tim Royner: Former WBC heavyweight champion Frank Bruno says the World Boxing Council should give Dillian Whyte a title shot if he beats fringe contender Oscar Rivas on July 20.

Bruno thinks it’s time that Whyte, 30, be given a rack at the WBC belt hold by Deontay Wilder. However, Whyte (25-1, 18 KOs) still hasn’t competed in an official title eliminator with the WBC. When they tried to get Whyte to fight Luis Ortiz in a title eliminator, he chose not to take it, and instead fought Dereck Chisora, Lucas Browne and Joseph Parker.

Those are decent fringe level fighters, but the WBC ask Whyte to fight any of those guys. Those were matches made by his promoter Eddie Hearn to keep him busy. Ortiz is a much different type of fighter than the likes of Lucas Browne, Parker and Chisora, who is more of a high level journeyman with nine losses on his resume.

Bruno: if Whyte beats Rivas, the WBC should give him the shot

Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) is already scheduled to fight Luis Ortiz in his next fight later this year. After that, Wilder will be facing Tyson Fury in a rematch in early 2020. There’s a possibility that Fury and Wilder could face each other twice in a row. If that happens, Whyte would likely need to wait until 2021 to fight Wilder, Fury or Ortiz for the WBC title. You can’t assume Wilder beats Ortiz or Fury. Those are tough fights for Wilder.

Whyte and Hearn want WBC to make Rivas fight final eliminator

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn and Whyte are both pushing hard for the WBC to make Whyte’s July 20th fight against Oscar Rivas title eliminator. The problem with that is Whyte and Hearn are picking their own opponent themselves for the final eliminator instead of letting the WBC do their job by ordering a fight. If you look at it in a logical manner, it doesn’t make sense.

The sanctioning body is supposed to be the one that selects opponents for title eliminators, not the fighters themselves or their promoters. When it gets to the point where the fighters can pick who they want to fight in title eliminators, then you can potentially see all kinds of crazy stuff with a contender selecting low ranked fighters to increase their chances of winning. Rivas is ranked #10 with the WBC. He’s not even a top 5 contender. That kind of makes it look bad if the WBC grants Hearn and Whyte’s wish to make the Rivas fight a title eliminator.

In hindsight, Whyte shouldn’t have taken the fight with Joseph Parker last year when the WBC wanted him to fight Luis Ortiz. It’s nice that Hearn got Whyte a fight against Parker, but it ended up hurting him because he missed out on a WBC title eliminator against Ortiz. Is it the WBC’s fault that Whyte chose not to participate in the process by fighting Ortiz in their eliminator or it Whyte’s fault?

If Wilder has to beat Fury twice in a row, that’s going to be tough for him to do. If Fury captures the WBC belt, Whyte is going to have major headaches trying to deal with his fighting style. Whyte is like Chisora 2.0 with the way he fights. Fury dominated Chisora twice. Whyte is an easy fight for Fury on paper.

“His next opponent [Rivas] is a serious guy that everyone’s been ducking,” said Bruno to skysports.com. “If he gets past that, the WBC has to give him a squeeze, give him what he rightfully deserves…They should apply the rules and if you’re number one in the rankings you should be next in line to fight for the championship.”

Bruno doesn’t seem to understand how the sanctioning bodies work. It doesn’t matter if you’re number one. You still have to fight in a title eliminator to become the mandatory. If you choose to ignore the sanctioning bodies when they order you to fight in a title eliminator, then you’ve missed your chance. Whyte could have already locked himself in as the WBC mandatory if he had fought Ortiz last year instead of wasting time with Parker, Browne and Chisora. With that said, Whyte might have lost to Ortiz, so he’s better off not having fought him. At least Whyte has a winning streak going.

Whyte says he’ll see what WBC does after he beats Rivas

The World Boxing Council probably won’t order Whyte to fight Wilder immediately if he beats Rivas (26-0, 18 KOs) in their fight on July 20 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Wilder is busy with other fights that could take him to the end of 2020. There’s also a chance of Wilder facing the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. fight in a unification match. The WBC will likely let the unification fight go ahead of a mandatory defense. Either way, it doesn’t look like Whyte is going to get his title shot until 2021. It does not seem likely.

The Joshua fight was there for Whyte, but he didn’t take it

Whyte should have focused his energy on going after Joshua when he was still the IBF/WBA/WBO champion. Whyte had a chance to fight Joshua, but he didn’t accept the offer that was given to him. Whyte could regret that decision not to fight Joshua. If you look at Whyte’s career in the last year, he’s chosen not to fight in IBF and WBC title eliminators to become the mandatory for Joshua and Wilder. Further, Whyte decided not to fight Joshua recently when the fight was offered to him. There’s been a lot of missed opportunities for Whyte. Now he wants the WBC to make him the mandatory for Wilder if he beats Rivas, the lower ranked guy that he and Hearn picked out.

“I focus on one fight at a time. I’ll deal with Rivas and then we will see what happens. I thought I would have fought for the WBC belt a long time ago, maybe it’s just not my time yet,” said Whyte to skysports.com.