Whyte wants a rematch with Povetkin in 2020

By Boxing News - 08/22/2020 - Comments

By Matt Lieberman: Dillian Whyte wants an immediate rematch with Alexander Povetkin in 2020 following his 5th round knockout loss on Saturday night, according to promoter Eddie Hearn.

Moments after being stopped by Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KOs) at the Matchroom Fight Camp, Whyte (27-2, 18 KOs) came up to Hearn and gave him instructions to put together a rematch straight away.

Luckily for Whyte, he has a rematch clause in the contract with Povetkin, as he was defending his interim WBC heavyweight title against him. Technically, this was a title defense for the 32-year-old Whyte tonight.

Povetkin will need to face Whyte again

Despite Povetkin now being the new WBC mandatory to champion Tyson Fury, he can’t force the title shot against him in early 2021 due to Whyte having a rematch clause. If not for that, Povetkin could push the World Boxing Council to use his new mandatory position to fight for the title.

“We’ll exercise that rematch clause. We’ll look to make that before the end of the year and it’s a huge fight,” Hearn said to skysports.com.

Hearn and Whyte will be taking a big gamble in fighting Povetkin again, as things could wrong again for him. Povetkin looked dangerous for Whyte in every second of the contest, and it wasn’t a shock that he knocked him out in the 5th round. Povetkin was a tricky customer, and he recovered quickly from being hurt and dropped twice in the fourth.

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Dillian was knocked out in the fifth round by a left uppercut from Povetkin that he never saw coming. Up until that moment in the fight, Whyte was cruising to victory, having knocked Povetkin down twice in round four. Did Whyte get a little overconfident going into the fifth round? Perhaps.

Alexander not hurt by two knockdowns in round four

Povetkin never lost confidence despite being dropped twice in the 4th round, as he wasn’t hurt. These were flash knockdowns, and he was get up from them and come back strong in the 5th.

 “I didn’t feel that I would finish the fight like this. I was pretty confident in the 4th round that, even though I went down twice, it was OK. It wasn’t too much damage,” said Povetkin.

Whyte had hoped to use this fight tonight against the 40-year-old Povetkin as a tune-up to get him ready to force his mandated title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in 2021.

“Dillian Whyte looked like he was on his way to overcoming a tricky start to knock out Alexander Povetkin, but he pulled a left uppercut out of the bag and changes everything,” said Hearn to IFL TV.

Hearn devastated by Whyte’s loss

“Gutted. Devastated and I know Dillian Whyte will bounce back. It was over,” Hearn said in his thoughts on how Whyte was doing after round four. “Someone came up to me and said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I think the fights over. Dillian has just to stay patient, and it goes from there.’

“I can’t believe it when it happened. And I felt like I was in a dream. I was trying to snap out of it. I’m gutted for Dillian, but he’ll bounce back. We have to move forward and make this rematch, and see him try and regain that mandatory position.

“He thinks these types of fights are going to prepare him to fight for a heavyweight world title,” Hearn said of Whyte. “He came unstuck tonight. It’s something that could have happened at any time. It could have happened against Joseph Parker, and it could have happened against Dereck Chisora and it could have happened against Oscar Rivas.

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Dillian got caught

“This is what happens at the top levels of heavyweight boxing. Anyone can win at any time, and that’s why people love to see it. I’m gutted for him [Whyte], but I know he’ll rebuild and he’ll be back.

“When he came back the first thing he said to me was ‘make the rematch,'” Hearn said in talking about what Whyte told him moments after being knocked out by Povetkin. “He was winning the fight. He was in a comfortable position, wasn’t he? It looked like it was going to be over, but you’ve got to give massive respect to Alexander Povetkin.

Image: Whyte wants a rematch with Povetkin in 2020

“I think that was one obstacle that was in the way and it’s not there, but I don’t really want to talk about,” said Hearn about Whyte not being in position any longer to get in the way of the Joshua vs. Fury fight.

“I don’t really want to talk about Joshua and Fury. Right now, we wanted Dillian Whyte to get what he deserved, which is a shot at a world heavyweight title. That got taken away from him tonight.

“We have to rebuild him to get that shot at a world heavyweight title. He will fight for a world heavyweight title, but right now that’s been put on hold.,” said Hearn.

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