By Scott Gilfoid: Dillian Whyte is already sounding bitter, angry and upset over Andy Ruiz Jr. not accepting the seven-figure offer that was made to him by Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn. Whyte thinks Ruiz Jr. (33-2, 22 KOs) is more focused on chasing chocolate and not as much dialed into his boxing career at this point.
It’s interesting that Whyte would talk about Ruiz being more in food than boxing, because he weighed 271 lbs for his last fight against Mariusz Wach on December 7 in Saudi Arabia. That’s a career high weight for Whyte, and he struggled like mad in that fight.
Wach put hands on Whyte, and had him looking like he’d gone through a meat grinder at the end. Even the next day, Whyte’s speech sounded off, like he was in bad shape. That was one of the hardest fights of Whyte’s career, and it shouldn’t have been. It should have been easy, but he was too fat to dominate Wach.
Hearn needs to sweeten offer to Ruiz
It’s up to Whyte’s promoter Hearn to bump up the offer high enough to get Ruiz to bite. Hearn is fishing for big game, and he’s not going to be able to reel Ruiz in for a fight with Whyte if he’s using the wrong bait. Put some sweet caviar on the hook, and Ruiz will go for hook, line and sinker.
It seemingly hasn’t dawned on Whyte that Ruiz might feel that the offer was too low by Hearn for him to agree to take the fight. Most boxing fans would agree that an in shape Ruiz beats Whyte seven-days a week, 365 days a year, especially the way he’s looking now.
Whyte is starting to look more than a little depleted at this stage in career. He almost to high level journeyman Dereck Chisora twice, and was arguably saved by the referee in the 12th round in his fight with Oscar Rivas last July.
That was the fight in which the referee mistakenly stopped the action in the 12th after Rivas had hurt Whyte with a body shot, and gave Dillian a time out to recover. The referee thought it was a low blow that Rivas had hit Whyte with, but it was actually a shot to the bread basket.
Whyte’s win over Joseph Parker was just as controversial with the referee giving Dillian credit for a knockdown from a heat-butt in the 2nd round. You can argue that Whyte should have an additional 4 losses in the last four years of his career.
Whyte says Povetkin more dangerous than Ruiz
“I think the Povetkin fight is more dangerous than Andy Ruiz, actually,” said The body Snatcher to Dillian Whyte’s channel. “At least Povetkin will be in shape. There’s a good chance Andy Ruiz won’t come in shape. Here in the UK at the O2 or in Manchester,” said Whyte when asked where a fight between him and Povetkin will take place.
Hearn’s decision to try and get Povetkin as Whyte’s opponent can be viewed as a way to make sure Dillian doesn’t get beaten. Eddie could have went with the younger lian Michael Hunter or Filip Hrgovic for Whyte to fight, but instead he’s trying to get the 40-year-old Povetkin, who was recently knocked out by Anthony Joshua.
Whyte has got to be kidding himself if he thinks 40-year-old Alexander Povetkin is more dangerous than Andy Ruiz. Povetkin is coming off of a HIGHLY controversial 10 round draw against Michael Hunter on December 7. Hunter had Povetkin ready to be knocked out in the first round, but he backed off and let him survive.
Ruiz values chocolate more than boxing says Whyte
“We made Andy Ruiz an offer, but chocolate’s more important than boxing for him right now so let’s see,” said Whyte. “He done well, changed his life. He made history… Tacos got that brother moving mad. He had the world at his feet but he couldn’t say no to the enchiladas.”
Ruiz’s weight wasn’t that far off from where he needed to be in his last fight against Joshua. If Ruiz had come in 15 lbs lighter, he’d likely have beaten Joshua again, and the world would be at his feet.
The loss for Ruiz was a huge wakeup call for him to get back to his roots, and take his training more seriously. You can’t blame Ruiz at all for losing his edge for that one fight, as the sudden wealth got to him. He was like a kid let loose in a candy store overnight, and he had his fill of the goodies.
Ruiz bought a nice house, cars, and helped his family after his first fight with Joshua. Now that Ruiz is starting to adjust to his newfound wealth, he appears ready to take his career seriously once again. He just needs an opponent, be it Whyte or whoever.
Whyte prefers Ruiz Jr. over Povetkin fight
“Andy Ruiz, of course,” said Whyte when asked who he prefers to fight, Ruiz or Povetkin. “We made him a good offer of 7-figures. A lot of money, especially with him coming off of a defeat in his last fight. I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything,” said Whyte.
Yeah, you can’t blame Whyte for wanting to fight Ruiz over Povetkin. There is absolutely NO interest from the boxing public in seeing Whyte face Povetkin. Hunter didn’t get a lot of traction from his fight with Povetkin, and neither will Whyte. If Hearn is smart, he’ll do whatever it takes to get Ruiz to sign on the dotted line for him to fight Whyte.
It’ll be a waste of time for Whyte to try and get Ruiz to fight him in the UK, because that’s not likely to happen. There’s too much controversy involved in Whyte’s past fights in the last 4 years for someone like Ruiz to want to travel to the UK to face him.