By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says be putting pressure on the WBC to have Dillian Whyte reinstated as the immediate mandatory to champion Tyson Fury if he defeats Alexander Povetkin in their rematch on November 21. What Hearn wants is for Whyte to challenge Fury for his title next February.
Before Dillian’s fifth-round knockout loss to Povetkin last month on August 22, he was the WBC mandatory, and he would have challenged for the title by February 2021.
The loss for Whyte made Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KOs) the new mandatory with the World Boxing Council, but he’s not going to be getting a title shot in February.
Hearn looking for Whyte to fight Fury in February 2021
Even if Povetkin beats Dillian in the rematch on November 21, there’s no way of knowing when the WBC will order Fury to defend his belt against the 40-year-old Russian fighter.
But what Hearn wants is for the original February 2021 to be reinstated for Whyte (27-2, 18 KOs) if he beats Povetkin, even though the clock will have reset with him as the WBC mandatory challenger.
Before Whyte’s defeat to Povetkin, Dillian had been the WBC mandatory since July 2019 after beating Oscar Rivas by a 12 round unanimous decision in a title eliminator. Dillian had waited 13 months for his mandated title shot for the WBC title but then lost that position with his brutal knockout defeat at the hands of Fury.
“Povetkin is mandatory to Fury. The winner of this fight will be mandatory to Fury – it’s just a case of when. Whyte had the date [by the end of February 2021] locked in and, if he wins, will be pushing for that date to be reinstated.said Hearn to Sky Sports News.
It’s unclear why Hearn wants Whyte to be given special treatment by the WBC that is different from what Povetkin is currently getting from the organization. Povetkin may end up waiting until 2022 for his mandated title shot against the WBC champion.
WBC clock will be reset for Dillian
The WBC hasn’t given Povetkin a title for when he’ll be allowed to fight for the title, and it’s not likely they’ll order Fury to defend against him in 2021. If Whyte defeats Povetkin to become the new WBC mandatory, then the clock will effectively be reset.
In other words, Whyte will be starting at day one as the new WBC mandatory on November 21 should he win, and the 13 months that he had waited previously will be irreverent. It won’t make sense fr the WBC to treat Whyte like he’s been waiting 16 months for his mandated title shot.
Whyte would be the NEW WBC mandatory, not the old one that has been waiting for his title shot since July 2019.
It’ll be interesting to see if the WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman and the board of governors with the organization caves in under pressure from Hearn to reinstate Whyte as the mandatory for Fury. Hearn wants Whyte to be able to challenge for the title in February of next year against Fury.
If Hearn is trying to find a way NOT to match Anthony Joshua against Tyson Fury in 2021, he’s going have to in another direction.
The WBC isn’t going to bail Hearn out by ordering Fury to face Whyte. If Dillian beats Povetkin on November 21, he’s going to have to wait for more than a year before he gets a title shot against the WBC champion.
Fury and Joshua are going to fight twice in 2021, which could be a bad thing for Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing company.
Is Whyte being used as a tool to protect Joshua?
There’s a belief with some fans that Hearn is using Dillian as a guard dog or tool to help protect his ‘Golden Goose’ Anthony Joshua from falling prey to the fox-like Tyson Fury.
With Whyte standing guard in front of the henhouse, he can potentially protect Joshua from Fury by either getting lucky in beating him or slowing down the inevitable. Joshua getting badly beaten by Fury.
If Fury humiliates Joshua by knocking him out twice, then Hearn is going to be stuck with a deflated former superstar in AJ.
The real question at that point would be, ‘Can Hearn rebuild Joshua’s shattered career?’ My guess is he won’t be able to. Look at how Deontay Wilder’s career has evaporated following his 7th round knockout loss to Fury last February.
That was just one loss, and poor Wilder’s reputation has been smashed to bits by Fury. Now picture Joshua losing TWICE to Fury in 2021 in the same fashion that Wilder did.
It’ll be a complete and utter disaster for Hearn and Matchroom, which is why Eddie is so seemingly obsessed with Whyte challenging Fury in February 2021.
If nothing else, it buys Joshua a little more time in not having to face Fury for a bit longer. Instead of Joshua and Fury fighting twice in 2021, they would be fighting just once.
Dillian’s career will be on the line
“Whyte is so hungry to win,” Hearn said about Dillian’s rematch with Povetkin. “Many people think he’s foolish taking the rematch so early.
“He thinks he should have won the fight, wants the chance to avenge the defeat, and wants to do it quickly.everything is on the line in his career,” said Hearn.
“If he wants to fight for a world title, everything is on the line in this fight,” said Hearn.
It might be game over for the 32-year-old Whyte if he’s knocked out for a second time by Povetkin on November 21. If this were a situation in which Dillian was facing a younger guy perceived to be at the zenith of their careers, then it wouldn’t be as disastrous for him to lose again.
For example, getting beaten by Joshua wouldn’t be a massive blow to Whyte’s career, as he’s seen as one of the heavyweights in the game. But in the case of the 40-year-old Povetkin, he’s not viewed as a guy in his prime, and he’s not a top-two type heavyweight. If Whyte loses to Povetkin, it’s pretty much career-over for him.
Hearn has already said what his plans are for Whyte if he gets beaten again by Povetkin. He says he wants to throw Dillian in with Daniel Dubois in 2021, and see what happens. That would be like a scene out of the movie Jurassic Park if Whyte were to be matched against Dubois. If any doubts were remaining that ‘The Body Snatch’ Whyte was finished as a fighter, it would be affirmed after Dubois got finished with him.
It’s a hard one to come to grips with Whyte rushing into a rematch with Povetkin three months after being knocked unconscious in the 5th round on August 22. The decision-making going into this fight seems to be faulty at best.
How do you let your fighter take a rematch just three months after they’ve been knocked cold? It would be one thing if Whyte were facing a scrub opponent that had no chance of beating him, but that’s not what we have here.
Whyte will be facing the same fighter in Povetkin that dispatched him last month, and that’s a move that is completely insane and desperate.
You can bet that if Joshua loses to Fury, Hearn will try and delay the second fight for as long as he can to try and have Joshua regroup mentally and physically from the defeat.
Maybe the boxing world will have forgotten Joshua’s loss if Hearn moves the second fight into 2022 or 2023.
The perfect scenario for Hearn obviously would be for Dillian to defeat Fury in February 2021, and then we could have an in-house Matchroom fight between Joshua and Whyte in 2021.