By Max Seitelman: Dillian Whyte has received confirmation by the WBC that Tyson Fury won’t be made Franchise champion, and that he’ll have to face him next year. Whyte says Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) will need to face him or vacate his WBC title.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum will likely be able to have Fury elevated to Franchise champion if he asks the WBC. If the WBC installs Whyte as their email champion, he can still possibly use the belt to fight Fury or Joshua later. It’s not like an automatic loss if Whyte is elevated to WBC champion after the sanctioning body makes Fury their Franchise champ.
Any conversations Whyte has had with the WBC about Fury NOT being made Franchise champion are meaningless.
Arum will get his way
The WBC won’t say no to Arum if he petitions them to make Fury their Franchise champion because it’s a move that will increase the chances of the Fury-Joshua match taking place without a hit in 2021.
Fury vacating the WBC title isn’t what Dillian’ The Body Snatcher’ (27-1, 18 KOs) wants, as that would present him from competing against him. It would be the same as if the WBC gave Fury the Franchise champion status.
What Dillian wants is the fight with Fury because it’ll make him a lot of money next year. It would be a win-win situation for Whyte, who will do well money-wise even if he loses to Fury. Most boxing fans believe Fury beat Whyte with ease, and embarrass him even worse than he did Deontay Wilder.
Whyte is getting ahead of himself in talking about the fight with Fury, as he still needs to beat Alexander Povetkin. Dillian, 32, and Povetkin (35-2-1, 24 KOs) are battling in a 12 round fight on Sky Sports Box Office later this summer on August 22, Matchroom Fight Camp, in Brentwood, Essex.
Whyte says Fury must fight him or vacate WBC belt
“The WBC has come out and said there’s no chance we’ll be making him Franchise champion, so that’s a step in the right direction. He will have to fight me or vacate the belt,” said Whyte to Sky Sports News. “His [Fury] team are talking about a franchise champion and all of that, but we’ve intervened and stopped that,” said Whyte.
Dillian might get his wish in Fury facing him in the first quarter of 2021, but he may not like the results. Other than a big paycheck for the fight, Whyte might end up losing badly to Fury.
At this point, the only way that Fury would choose to vacate his WBC title is if Joshua gives up his WBO belt. Joshua must face WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk in the first part of next year, and he hasn’t said if he’ll do that.
It would be a good move on Joshua and Fury’s part for them to both vacate their titles so that they can fight in the summer of 2021. Joshua and Fury’s desire to fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship will probably keep them from vacating belts.
The Whyte-Povetkin match culminates the four-event Fight Camp at the Matchroom Headquarter, which used to be the childhood home of promoter Eddie Hearn.
Whyte MUST not lose to Povetkin because his WBC mandatory position will be up for grabs for that contest. A loss to Povetkin, 40, and he can forget about fighting the winner of the Fury vs. Deontay Wilder trilogy match next year.
While most boxing fans aren’t too anxious about Whyte getting beat by the former WBA heavyweight champion Povetkin, you can’t rule out an upset. Povetkin hasn’t lost his punching power, and we’ve seen Whyte on the canvas against Joseph Parker, Oscar Rivas, and Anthony Joshua.
Dillian believes Tyson wants him to lose to Povetkin
“[Fury] would like to see me slip-up a million times over because he would probably prefer to fight Povetkin than fight me because Tyson Fury knows,” said Whyte. “They call him The Gypsy King, I call him The Gypsy Coward.”
Dillian sounds like he’s doing a little too much mind-reading when it comes to Fury, and he could be completely wrong. I think the reality is Fury views, Whyte, as a low-money fight, and small speed bump in his way from getting a substantial colossal cash fight against Joshua. Whyte doesn’t scare Fury. He’s someone in his path, slowing him up from his goal of facing Joshua.
Fury is more likely indifferent about Whyte’s fight with Povetkin in August. It matters little to Fury, which of the two wins, especially if he’s not planning on defending his WBC title against the Whyte-Povetkin winner.
Fury seems more annoyed right now at Whyte’s near-obsession with wanting to fight him, considering he seems to want that fight a little too much. If Whyte showed that he had other options and wasn’t so consumed with his need to fight Fury, it wouldn’t be as bad.
Financially, it’s better for Fury if Whyte beats Povetkin because there’s more money in a Fury-Whyte fight.
Whyte tells Arum to ‘Shut Up’ about Franchise belt
“Bob Arum needs to shut up,” said Whyte on Fury’s promoter wanting him to be made Franchise champ.
“Listen, the guy is a Hall of Famer, he’s a nice guy and all of this, but he’s just talking rubbish.
“He needs to chill. He needs to learn some respect for himself and have some respect for me as well, and realize that I’ve earnt my position, I’ve worked hard,” said Whyte.
It’s doubtful that Arum will stop talking about him wanting Whyte to earn the title shot against Whyte by facing Usyk first. Arum wants the mandatory defenses due by Fury and Joshua to be either postponed for a year or eliminated.
Minus that, Arum would like to see Whyte and Usyk fight, and then the winner could face the winner of Joshua-Fury.
If Arum asks World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman to make Fury the Franchise champion, he’ll probably do it.
Arum has already had Top Rank fighter Vasiliy Lomachenko made Franchise champion last year. He’s confident that the WBC president Sulaiman will make that move again if he asks them to.