By Jim Maltzman: Heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte is talking up a fight against UFC fighter Francis Ngannou in what would be a boxing match if it happened. Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) already has a fight that he needs to take care of against Alexander Povetkin potentially in September, and he’s far too talented to be overlooked.
Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn is on board with letting him face the tall 6’4″ Ngannou. But the chances of that fight happening slim. Whyte lacks the popularity needed for the UFC to allow Ngannou to fight him. They might do it for a superstar heavyweight like Anthony Joshua or possibly Tyson Fury, but not Whyte.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWgYiDG3nT0
Dillian says he’ll fight anybody, but when he was ordered to face Luis Ortiz in a WBC title eliminator, he chose not to. Whyte does a lot of talking, but he’s mainly faced, C-level heavyweights. When Whyte did step up in 2015 in a fight against Anthony Joshua, he lost.
Hearn interested in Whyte vs. Ngannou
“Will Dillian fight Ngannou? Of course, one million percent,” said Hearn on social media when asked if Whyte will face UFC heavyweight Francis Ngannou. “How excited would you be with Whyte against Ngannou? Everybody seems to be on it,” said Hearn.
Ngannou is reportedly interested in fighting Whyte in a boxing match, but there are too many impediments blocking this fight. Whyte is the WBC mandatory challenger, and he wants to fight for the title in 2021. The way things are looking, though, Whyte may need to wait until 2022 before he gets a shot against the winner of the Fury vs. Joshua fight.
The 32-year-old Whyte is confident that he’ll beat Ngannou, and it’s understandable why. Ngannou looks uncoordinated – but powerful – in his fights in the UFC, and he would very likely fall apart against a professional heavyweight boxer like Whyte.
There are a lot of other heavyweights that would likely easily beat Ngannou. It’s not a sporting fight because Ngannou doesn’t possess the experience to take on a fighter like Whyte. Ngannou does hit hard, but his power won’t be the same with boxing gloves on.
“Ngannou is dumber than he sounds if he thinks he’s going to do anything in boxing,” said Whyte to Sky Sports. “If he turned up to fight me like the coward that he was against Derrick Lewis I’d hurt him and knock him cleanout. That was officially the most boring fight in UFC history.
“He reminds me of that other deluded coward Deontay Wilder,” said Whyte.. “Ngannou has to be the most boring man on the planet. A speck of dust has more personality. “If he wants it and wants to earn some real money, let’s get it on and stop talking about it,” said Whyte.
UFC has nothing to gain letting Ngannou fight Whyte
The UFC rightfully would be against the idea of letting Ngannou because there’s nothing to gain in that fight. If Ngannou embarrassingly loses to Whyte, his value to the UFC would drop off. We saw that with Conor McGregor in his one-sided defeat by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017.
Also, the money that Ngannou would make fighting Whyte might be good enough for him to ease off with his fights in the UFC. Again, this is another thing we saw with McGregor after he got a big payday against Mayweather.
McGregor has fought just twice in the UFC since getting the Mayweather payday in 2017. If you look at it from the UFC perspective, they would have been better off if McGregor never fought Mayweather.
Whyte doesn’t have the popularity because of his weak resume. He hasn’t been able to get the popular guys to fight him because he’s not been fighting the right guys to build up a face base.
