By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn hasn’t given up on the idea of trying to match his fighter WBC mandatory Dillian Whyte against Tyson Fury in 2020 or 2021 despite promoter Frank Warren saying that ‘The Gypsy King’ won’t be fighting him.
Warren said that WBC heavyweight champion Fury isn’t going to fight Whyte and that the match that they’re looking for is against Anthony Joshua ether this year or in 2021. If Wilder isn’t ready to face Fury in 2020, then they’ll move on and take the Joshua unification.
Fury won’t wait until 2021 to take care of his contractually bound trilogy match against former WBC champion Wilder (42-1-1, 41 K.O.s).
Whyte (27-1, 18 K.O.s) is a low priority for Fury, who is looking for the big money match-ups against Wilder and Joshua. Dillian, 32, isn’t nearly as interesting for Fury as those two matches.
Hearn has no way of forcing Fury to defend against Whyte, as it appears that he could vacate his WBC title if the World Boxing Council attempts to enforce his mandatory defense against Dillian. Fury doesn’t want to devote a lot of time and effort into getting a fight against Whyte, which will only interest British boxing fans and not Americans.
Hearn insists that a fight between Fury and Whyte would bring in 1.5 million pay-per-view buys, but of course, this is just wild speculation on his part. He might be talking about when things were excellent in terms of the U.K. economy with unemployment low. Things are dramatically different now, thanks to the pandemic.
Hearn: Fury should fight Whyte this year
“I saw Frank’s comments where he said ‘if Wilder’s not ready this year, then he loses out,'” said Hearn to IFL TV. “If that’s the case, then he’s saying that Fury wants to fight this year, then he should just fight his mandatory [Whyte].
“We’ll push the WBC to make sure he fights his mandatory if he can’t fight Deontay Wilder. That’s my comments. Then why is Frank saying if he [Wilder] doesn’t want the fight, then we’re not fighting him [Whyte] next year.
“So there’s an issue, and the problem is probably that they can’t get the money together because of no gate. I understand that, but that’s not criticism. We have the same problems with some of our fights.
“But what I’m saying is Whyte against Fury does one and a half pay-per-view buys plus. So I think you can run that fight in December,” said Hearn.
Hearn sounds like he’s disengaged from reality when he blabbers about pushing the WBC to have them enforce Fury’s mandatory against Whyte. Eddie doesn’t seem to realize that the WBC belt is expendable to Fury and that his focus right now is to tace Wilder and then Joshua after that.
After Fury takes care of business against Joshua in their two fights, he might look Dillian’s way, but that’ll depend on how his career is going. Whyte is facing Alexander Povetkin this month on August 22, and he could lose that fight. Whyte will need to keep winning through next year for him to have a shot at facing Fury or Joshua.
With Dillian’s fights being shown on Sky Box Office, he can’t fight fodder-level opposition. He’ll need to take on talented guys if he wants to sell his matches, and that’s going to be risky for him because he’s not a super talent.
Eddie likes Fury vs. Whyte at Matchroom Fight Camp
“Also, Alexander Povetkin is probably watching these interviews saying, ‘Keep writing me off, mate. I’m going to chin him [Dillian] next week.’ So there’s so much that can happen,” Hearn said.
“Behind closed doors, on a yacht somewhere, in the Middle East or at the O2 [in London, UK,” said Hearn when asked where he would stage Fury vs. Whyte.
“You have to be able at the moment to think outside of the box in terms of where you’re going because right now, we thought we’d have live crowds in September. That’s not going to happen. We thought we’d have a good chance for live crowds in October.
“Maybe some kind of capacity. November is a better chance. December, I hope so. But you have to think outside the box,” Hearn continued. “There are certain regions opening up for business before others.
“So that fight [Fury vs. Whyte] can take place anywhere. It’s a huge fight. I’ll do it in the [Matchroom Boxing Fight Camp] Garden. Tyson would fight anywhere,” said Eddie.
It’s safe to say that Tyson Fury won’t be fighting Whyte at Matchroom Fight Camp anytime soon, if ever. That’s more crazy talk from Hearn. Why would Fury want to put himself in a position where he could lose a controversial decision to the Matchroom promoted Whyte in Eddie’s backyard at his old house in Brentwood, Essex? It’s not happening.
Fury would be placing himself in the position of being the B-side guy if he were to agree to fight Dillian at the Matchroom Fight Camp, and that’s not happening. If Fury does one-day fight Whyte, it’s almost surely going to be in a neutral country like the U.S. in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Fury-Whyte will generate 1.5 million buys predicts Hearn
“He’s a fighting man. If the money is right, he’ll fight anywhere,” said Eddie about Tyson Fury. “It generates [Fury-Whyte] ridiculous amounts of money. If that does one and a half million pay-per-view buys at 20 quid or 25,
“I might even put a cheeky fiver on top of that one. It’s huge money. Plus your income from ESPN in America, plus your international T.V., it’s huge money. So, he’s [Fury] got to fight him [Whyte] sooner or later.
“They [ESPN] don’t have a choice. They’ve got a contract with Tyson Fury,” said Hearn when told that ESPN wouldn’t be happy if Fury chooses to face Whyte this year rather than Wilder.
“I think they’d be over the moon,” said Hearn on his prediction that ESPN would be happy if Fury fights in the U.K. for his next contest. “What you don’t know is college football has just evaporated right now. So actually, ESPN wants afternoon content. So it’s even better for them,” Hearn added.
Out of everything Hearn says, his prediction of Fury-Whyte generating 1.5 million PPV buys might turn out to be correct, but that still doesn’t mean that the contest will take place in 2020 or 2021.
Fury has to deal with Wilder, who is a big name in America, and then face Joshua twice in 2021. Whyte is an unknown in the U.S., and he trails Wilder an Joshua in terms of fan interest on both sides of the Atlantic.
Tyson would decide if Matchroom Garden is the ideal venue
“That’s up to him,” Hearn said of Fury fighting in the Matchroom garden headquarters in Brentwood, Essex. “He’s welcome too. I think every fighter right now, tell me in boxing, has a better spectacle and a better place to fight than what you’ve seen so far than Fight Camp.
“Okay, so we won’t do it [here]. We’ll do it in a studio. Okay, I’d instead do it at Fight Camp. If you can’t go into venues and if you can’t drive crowds, then you’ve got to fight somewhere. So if you’re going to box behind closed doors, these are the options.
“Yes, if we had to and if both fighters wanted to and the money was right for both guys, of course,” said Hearn when asked if he would stage Joshua vs. Fury behind closed doors at the Matchroom Fight Camp,” said Hearn.
Hearn is doggedly determined to try and force Whyte down the throat of Fury, isn’t he? Oh well, he’ll eventually realize that the fight isn’t going to happen this year or next, and he’ll move on.
What Hearn should be trying to do is throw a bone to Whyte to get him a title shot against Joshua This is within Hearn’s power. Have Joshua vacate the IBF trinket, forget about 39-year-old Kubrat Pulev, and take the fight against Whyte instead.
No one cares whether Joshua has the IBF belt or not. They already view A.J. as a world champion. A.J. doesn’t need the IBF belt, and he certainly doesn’t need to defend it against Bulgarian Pulev, who isn’t popular in the U.K. or the U.S.