By Charles Brun: Dillian Whyte is looking beyond his May 2 opponent Alexander Povetkin towards a hoped-for rematch with Anthony Joshua in early 2021. Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) is WBC mandatory and he’ll be getting a mandated shot at the title by February of 2021.
The 31-year-old Whyte is in a position to fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship against either Joshua or Tyson Fury depending on how things go. Either of those fights would bring Whyte a big payday.
He’d like it to be against Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) so that he can avenge his only career loss from December 12, 2015. An injured Whyte was stopped in the 7th round by Joshua in London, and that defeat slowed the progress of his career. If not for that defeat, Whyte would have fought for a world title a long time ago.
Whyte wants Joshua rematch in 2021
Whyte is risking his mandatory status with the World Boxing Council against former WBA champion Povetkin (35-2-1, 24 KOs) on the 20th of June on Sky Sports Box Office at the Manchester Arena, in Manchester, England.
“I would love to fight Joshua again, at a drop of a hat,” said Whyte to skysports.com. “It’s one of the biggest fights out there. I’m in the game to have the biggest fights and the most meaningful fights. If Ruiz can knock him out, I can 100 percent knock him out, because I’m a harder puncher than Andy Ruiz.”
The hand speed of Ruiz took Joshua by surprise in their first fight in June 2019, and he wasn’t ready for the big left hook counter that he nailed him with in round 3.
The Povetkin fight is at risk of being postponed due to the coronavirus. Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom has a backup plan of rescheduling the Whyte-Povetkin fight to June.
Of course, even that month could see further postponements that could push the Whyte vs. Povetkin fight to the end of the year. That’s a worst-case scenario. It’s hoped that a vaccine will have been discovered by then and rushed to the market for the world population to eradicate the coronavirus.
Joshua, 29, is scheduled to defend against his IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs) on June 20th at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, UK. The fight will be televised on Sky Sports Box Office.
Fury a bad style matchup for Whyte
Most boxing fans would agree that Whyte would do a lot better against Joshua than he would against the 6’9″ Fury, who is hard to hit. The size advantage that Fury would have over Whyte would put him at a tremendous disadvantage, and it could end badly for him. Whyte is arguably a slightly better version of Dereck Chisora, and Fury completely dominated him in two fights.
Joshua’s fragile chin would make hi a better option for Whyte than Fury, who seems to take a heck of shot without going down.
It would be better for Whyte to keep his eyes on the task at hand in his upcoming May 2 fight against 40-year-old Povetkin. The Russian fighter is too talented for Whyte to be looking past him towards bigger fights. Whyte took a tremendous amount of punishment in his last fight against Mariusz Wach on December 7, and he can’t overlook anyone at this point.
