By Robert Addams: WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman says the World Boxing Council will be meeting this week to discuss Dillian Whyte’s situation as their interim WBC heavyweight champion. Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) was cleared last Friday by UKAD from their investigation on his adverse test results last summer.
Before the WBC suspended Whyte, he was the mandatory and interim champion to WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder. The WBC replaced Whyte with Tyson Fury as Wilder’s mandatory, and he’ll now be facing him in a rematch on February 22.
WBC could order Wilder-Fury 2 winner face Whyte
With the Wilder-Fury 2 fight already scheduled, the WBC could order the winner of their February 22 fight face Whyte in their next title defense in 2020. The WBC could could that or they also have the Wilder vs. Fury rematch face Whyte in 2021. The problem with the WBC ordering the winner of the Wilder and Fury fight facing Whyte in 2020 is it would mean that 2 mandatory title defenses would need to be made next year.
It probably wouldn’t be a big deal for Fury if he captures the belt, but it might be for Wilder. Requiring Wilder make 2 mandatory defenses in 2020 ties his hands as far as getting a bigger fight. For example, Wilder can likely more money fighting Fury in a trilogy match in 2020 or a unification fight with IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua than facing Whyte.
If the WBC is more interested in having more compelling fights take place for their WBC heavyweight champion Wilder next year, then they might consider having Whyte wait until 2021 before he challenges for the title.
Will WBC order Whyte to fight in another title eliminator?
Whyte’s worst nightmare would be for the WBC to order him to fight in another world title eliminator to earn a fight against the Wilder-Fury 2 winner. Last July, Whyte defeated Oscar Rivas by a 12 round unanimous decision in a WBC title eliminator in London, England.
Rivas knocked Whyte down in the 9th, and had him badly hurt in the 12th from a body shot. The referee Victor Loughlin that it was a low blow, and gave Whyte a break to recover from the shot. Rivas would likely love the idea of facing Whyte in another title eliminator, as would him a second shot at becoming the mandatory.
🔶 WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has confirmed they’ll address Dillian Whyte’s situation this week. WBC suspended his status as ‘interim’ champion, but have now said: “Last Friday, UKAD released a statement exonerating Whyte. We will be dealing with this issue during the week.”
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) December 10, 2019
Whyte will need to perform a lot better against the Wilder vs. Fury 2 winner than he did in his last fight against Mariusz Wach (35-6, 19 KOs) if he wants to have a chance at winning. Dillian came into the fight against Wach at a career high of 271 lbs, and he had problems with his size and pressure the entire fight.
Ultimately, Whyte won a 10 round unanimous decision by the scores 97-93, 98-93 and 97-93, but he didn’t look good. Whyte ended up with a swollen right eye, which he blamed on him being thumbed by the 6’7 1/2″ Wach. It looked more like the case of Wach landing a lot of shots that did the damage to Whyte’s eye.
Dillian looked poor against Wach
Whyte looked slow, easy to hit, and not particularly talented. The way Whyte performed, he wouldn’t beat a good heavyweight like Luis Ortiz. It’s a good thing that Whyte didn’t fight in the WBC eliminator against Ortiz when the sanctioning body wanted him to take that.
Rather than take on the dangerous Ortiz, Whyte went his own way, fighting Dereck Chisora, Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne, Robert Helenius and Josepher Parker. If Whyte had just taken the fight with Ortiz like the WBC wanted to, he would have earned the WBC mandatory spot a long time ago. But again, the way that Whyte looked in all those fights, he likely would have been beaten by Ortiz. In that case, Whyte did the right thing by not facing Ortiz, and taking the arguably softer fights against Chisora, Browne, Helenius and Parker.
Whyte should probably forget all about Wilder, and ask his promoter Hearn to get him a world title shot against Joshua. If the payday is better for Whyte against Joshua, then it makes no sense for him to face WBC champion Wilder. That’s a fight that could end really badly for Whyte. He’s too slow, too easy to hit, and he lacks the power to keep someone like Wilder off of him. Joshua vs. Whyte 2 would be huge in the UK, and a much bigger fight than Wilder-Whyte.