Dillian Whyte will win a world title says Peter Fury

By Boxing News - 08/11/2020 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Trainer Peter Fury is predicting that Dillian Whyte will capture a heavyweight world title in the future against somebody. Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) has been slowly working his way towards a title shot since losing to Anthony Joshua in 2015, and he now appears to be on the doorstep to get a crack at the WBC belt held by champion Tyson Fury.

Peter doesn’t say which heavyweight champion Whyte would beat, as he already lost to Joshua. The 6’9″ WBC champion Fury would be a tough match-up for Whyte, who is like a slightly bigger version of Derreck Chisora in terms of talent.

Dillian can win a world title if Fury vacates

There’s a possibility that Tyson Fury may vacate his WBC title if pressed by the World Boxing Council to defend it against Whyte in February 2021. Fury wants to go straight into a match against IBF/WBA/WBO champ Joshua, and he’s not going to let a sanctioning body prevent him from making that fight.

Consequently, Fury could dump the anchor [WBC strap] if it starts to weigh him down to the depths by slowing his progress towards the fight that fans want to see between him and AJ.

If Fury vacates the WBC title, then Whyte will have finally have a shot at winning a world title for the first and possibly the last time. Whyte will likely face two-time former world title challenger Luis Ortiz (31-2, 26 KOs) for the vacant WBC title if Fury elects to give it up rather than use up the first-half of 2021 fighting him.

The talented 6’4″ Cuban Ortiz has twice challenged former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and lost both times by knockout.

Even against Ortiz, Whyte would have his work cut out for him, as he’s struggled against far lesser opposition than him. Joseph Parker and Oscar Rivas hurt Whyte. He also fought against 39-year-old Mariusz Wach and Dereck Chisora.

Image: Dillian Whyte will win a world title says Peter Fury

Many boxing fans believe that Whyte deserved a significant fat loss in his first contest against Chisora in 2016 but got lucky with the scoring by the judges in winning a questionable 12 round split decision. In Whyte’s rematch with Chisora in 2018, he was losing that fight, too, until the referee began taking points off from Dereck.

Some would argue that Chisora lost his cool when the referee Marcus McDonnell twice penalized him. It looked Chisora was fighting two people that night, Whyte and the referee.

Whyte must beat Povetkin on August 22

Dillian, 32, needs to win his fight this month against Alexander Povetkin (35-2-1, 24 KOs) on August 22 to keep his spot at the WBC interim and mandatory challenger to Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs).  Whyte and Povetkin’s match will be shown on Sky Box Office PPV in the UK and on DAZN in the United States from the Matchroom Boxing Fight Camp in Brentwood, Essex, England.

The troubling thing about Whyte is how he’s BLOWN his chances for a title shot in the past, with his questionable decision-making.

Last year, Whyte turned down a title shot against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, an incredibly bizarre move. As such, instead of Whyte challenging Joshua, the job went to Andy Ruiz Jr, and he blew him out of the water in stopping AJ in seven rounds. That could have been Whyte’s win, but he turned it down.

In another example of Whyte’s self-defeating decision making, he turned down a title eliminator in 2018 against Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz after the World Boxing Council ordered the two to face each other.

If Whyte had taken the fight with Ortiz, he would have been in a position to fight for a title in 2019 as the WBC mandatory to Deontay Wilder. However, that still wouldn’t have meant that Whyte would have beaten Deontay, as he’s easy to hit, and he might not have been able to last long against the Alabama native.

Image: Dillian Whyte will win a world title says Peter Fury

“I think he’s ready,” Peter Fury said to Sky Sports about his view of Dillian being on the cusp of capturing a world title. “I think he’s ready for a world title, and he should lift one, as and when he gets the opportunity.”

Fury and Joshua are going to be tough to beat

Whyte is ready to fight for a world title, but as far as winning one against Joshua or Fury, his chances of doing at are remote at best. Few people would give Dillian a ghost of a chance of beating either of those two champions.

It’s not because Dillian lacks power or toughness, as he has those ingredients going for him. The real problem that Whyte has is he’s not in the same league as AJ and Tyson, and there’s nothing he can do to measure up.

For a B-level fighter like Whyte, he’s not capable of defeating the elite-level guys like Joshua and ‘The Gypsy King’ Fury. Yes, Whyte would have a puncher’s chance against those champions, but that’s about it.

Again, Whyte’s best shot at winning a world title is if Fury vacates his WBC title under pressure from the WBC. Whyte would have a better than average chance of defeating the 41-year-old Ortiz.

Former IBF/WBA/WBO champion Andy Ruiz Jr is ranked just below Ortiz at #4 in the WBC’s rankings. So if Ortiz doesn’t take the fight with Dillian for the WBC belt, if Fury vacates, then Ruiz Jr (33-2, 22 KOs) might step up and face Whyte.

That would be a tough fight for Whyte, and there’s a chance he loses to Ruiz, especially now that he’s dedicated himself to training and seemingly lost a massive amount of weight.

“His mindset is there and I think he will win a world title. I think when he gets his time, Dillian, he’ll do it,” continued Peter Fury.

“He’s a good, solid fighter, and let’s not forget how much he’s come on as well. He’s improved a lot over the years, and he’s dedicated, so I see him doing big things,” said Peter.

Dillian blew his chance to fight Wilder

It would be nice if Peter volunteered his view of which champion in the division that he believes Whyte is capable of beating, given that there are no paper belt-holders for him to win a comfortable belt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku4AerX-XF4&t=13s

Whyte missed his golden opportunity to win a world title when Deontay held the WBC title for five years from 2015 to 2020.

Had Whyte agreed to take part in the WBC’s title eliminator in 2018, he would have challenged Wilder for his title in 2019.

Instead of facing Ortiz in a title eliminator, Whyte chose to fight fringe contender Chisora for a second time. That was a massive mistake on Whyte’s part.

As this writer has already mentioned, Whyte could have fought Joshua for his three world titles in 2019, but he chose not to take the fight and ended up facing Oscar Rivas and journeyman Wach.

Whyte could suffer a considerable career setback this month if he loses to 40-year-old former WBA heavyweight champion Povetkin on August 22. Dillian didn’t need to take this kind of risk, but he wanted to be able to fight on Sky Box Office while he waited for his mandated title shot at the WBC belt.

Sky likely wouldn’t have agreed to let Whyte face a lower-level opponent on Box Office, which meant that he had to face a live body capable of potentially beating him. Povetkin hasn’t looked good in a while, though.

Whyte fought to a controversial 10 round draw against Michael Hunter in his last contest in December, and he was knocked out by Joshua in seven rounds in 2018. Even in Povetkin’s 12 round decision win over Hughie Fury in August 2019, he didn’t look good in winning by the scores 117-111 x 3.