By Charles Brun: Dillian Whyte hopes that the World Boxing Organization will force WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder to defend against him in February or March of 2020. Whyte (26-1, 18 KOs) says he’s tired of waiting for his rightful title shot against Wilder, and he wants the match to get made early next year.
Whyte has been replaced as WBC mandatory by Tyson Fury
The WBC isn’t going to order Wilder to defend against Whyte in the first quarter of 2020, because they’ve already replaced him with Tyson Fury as the mandatory. Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs) will be facing each other on February 22, 2020. The fight is ALREADY official. Perhaps Whyte hasn’t been keeping up with the latest boxing news, because he should know this already.
Whyte is sounding frustrated at the process, and he jokingly talks about wanting to physically rip the title from Wilder and run away with it. That might be the only way Whyte, 31, will get a chance to take Wilder’s WBC title until 2021, because that’s when the WBC will be lifting his suspension. They’re still waiting on UKAD to release the results of Whyte’s B-sample from last July.
Whyte: Maybe I need to jump Wilder and take his WBC belt
“The WBC to force Wilder to fight me,” said Whyte when asked what he wants to happen in 2020. “I already tried to make the fight happen, but Wilder doesn’t want the fight to happen for some reason. Wilder keeps running and hiding. He said he was going to make me wait 2 or 3 years, and that’s exactly what’s happened.
“Maybe I just need to jump him in the bar or something, and smash him to bits, and steal his title and run off. Just punch him up, take his belt, and then run off into the night. I’m up for a world title fight. I just want to fight the best. I’ve been chasing a world title for a long time,” said Whyte.
The chances of Dillian getting a fight with Deontay in 2020 are slim unfortunately, as WBC currently has him under suspension following his adverse findings from his drug test before his last fight against Oscar Rivas. UKAD could greatly help or hurt Whyte’s chances of getting a world title fight against Wilder by speeding up the process of releasing the results of his B-sample.
It’s been 4 months, and they’re not helping things with how long it’s taken for them to release the results of the test. It’s unclear how long it takes for the laboratory to check Whyte’s B-sample. A lot of boxing fans feel that that UKAD should have gotten the results of Whyte’s B-sample within weeks, if not days from his last fight against Rivas.
If Whyte wants a world title shot in the meantime, he can speak with his promoter Eddie Hearn for him to arrange a fight against the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. rematch.
Whyte counting on facing Wilder in 2020
“If Dereck gets a world title shot before me, that’s insane,” said Whyte about Dereck Chisora. “It doesn’t matter what belt it is. My team is working behind the scenes, making sure I get my rights, and keeping me in the center of boxing.
“I want to fight Deontay Wilder. I just fight him, because I’ve done everything. But for some reason, something keeps happening to put the fight [out of reach]. He can punch, but he’s all over the place when he fights. But I’m not someone that just gets banged over with one punch, and stays down. I’ll prepare, and I’ll expect to be tagged, and I’ll train to avoid it.
“Hopefully my team will make the fight in February or March of this year,” said Whyte about Wilder. “We were meant to fight for the WBC a long time ago, ages ago. I’m WBC interim world champion at the minute, you know?” said Whyte.
Dereck Chisora is making a smart move in fighting WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk in February. If Chisora wins, he’ll be the WBO mandatory for the Joshua-Wilder fight.
Whyte could have fought Ortiz in a WBC title eliminator
Whyte would have had a title shot against Wilder by now if he’d not resisted facing Luis Ortiz when the WBC ordered him to face him Whyte and his promoter Eddie Hearn didn’t want to face Ortiz in a WBC ordered title eliminator.
Unfortunately, by not facing Ortiz, Whyte wasted his chance to earn the title shot against Deontay quickly. But then again, if Whyte was beaten by Ortiz, which might have happened, he would be out of luck. Wilder believes that Whyte would lose to Ortiz 10 out of 10 times, and he finds it interesting that he chose not to face him to earn the title shot.
Here’s what Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn said to Sky Sports in April 2018 after learning that the WBC had ordered Dillian to face Ortiz in a title eliminator:
“We’re going to appeal that. [WBC president] Mauricio Sulaiman said he would talk about it this week, and maybe post a resolution.”
As you can see, there was resistance on the part of Hearn with letting Whyte face Ortiz to EARN the title shot against Wilder in a WBC ordered title eliminator. Why would Hearn not want Whyte to fight Ortiz? Is it because he doubted he could win the fight?
At the time that the WBC ordered Whyte to face Ortiz, he had just beaten 39-year-old Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne. It’s not as if Whyte was facing better opposition than Ortiz to justify with the WBC that they had earned the title shot against Wilder.
Dillian says Wilder was supposed to happen in Feb. or Mar. 2020
“I was meant to fight Deontay Wilder in February or March [2020] next year, and it’s frustrating and annoying and stressful that I’ve worked so hard,” said Whyte. “Everytime I talk about it, I just want to go off. Who else deserves a world title shot in any division than me? No one else, you know?” said Whyte.
What Whyte is forgetting is he tested positive for a banned substance from before his last fight against Rivas. Although UKAD didn’t suspend Whyte, it doesn’t matter. The WBC suspended Whyte’s status as mandatory and interim heavyweight. They’re waiting for UKAD to complete their investigation before they make their next move.