By Charles Brun: Dillian Whyte feels that Dereck Chisora made a mistake of going into his fight against Oleksandr Usyk with the wrong cornerman. It cost him losing a 12 round decision.
Whyte would have liked to have seen Chisora’s manager David Haye work as the cornerman last Saturday at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.
Dillian didn’t like how Chisora fought with him, wasting time trying to hit the elusive Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) with headshots rather than targeting his midsection.
Whyte reveals that he would have roughed the smaller 217-pound Usyk up and worked on his body with shots.
Dillian says that Chisora (32-10, 23 KOs) fought like he was “mesmerized” with how he is fighting cleanly rather than using his size and power to make it tough for the smaller Usyk.
Chisora, 36, wasted his chance to capture the WBO mandatory status that Usyk had, and he may not ever get a chance again to earn a title shot in one fight. Whyte says this was the biggest fight of Chisora’s career, and he blew it.
Dillian blaming Chisora’s corner for the loss
“I thought Dereck could have done much better,” said Whyte to Sky Sports News about Chisora’s loss to Usyk. “He let himself down by not having any boxing experience in his corner to tell him and guide him to tell him what to do and not to do.
“He just went into the ring with the mindset of knockout, knockout, knockout, and that didn’t work. And he just stuck to that game plan. Dereck was the boss in the corner. There wasn’t anyone in there.
“He had some good MMA guys in there, but they’re not boxing coaches. They weren’t giving him the advice that he needed to make the changes and adjustments to beat someone like Usyk.
“I would have told Dereck to get his jab going and go to the body more often and start cutting the ring off. When Dereck did hit him to the body, Usyk didn’t like it. He was complaining and that he was getting hurt to the body.
“The corner wasn’t strong enough. Keep working the body and stop targeting the head because Usyk was leaning back and making Dereck miss. So he should have started targeting the body. I gave Dereck three or four rounds at max,” said Whyte.
Chisora did the right thing in going for the knockout when he was still fresh early on in the fight. If he had taken things slowly, he wouldn’t have done well.
Using his jab would have worked for Chisora, but he was using it. When he was turning southpaw, he had a lot of success with his right jab.
It probably wouldn’t have made a difference who was working his corner for the fight. Usyk was too good for Chisora, and there was nothing he could do about that.
Whyte says Usyk is too weak
“He was aggressive, and he pushed Usyk back a lot, but that’s what Usyk was going to do anyway,” said Whyte. “Usyk was never going to come forward.
“He was just going to keep boxing on the back foot and keep picking up points. He was never going to, ‘I’m going to walk Dereck down.’ Dereck says there’s going to be a war, and he says, ‘No, no war. It’s going to be a boxing match.’
“I don’t think he’s big enough or strong enough to be in it,” Whyte said of Usyk. “I don’t think he’s resilient enough with the punches because the punches Dereck landed, they bothered him a lot.
“He’s a cruiserweight, but he’s an undefeated cruiserweight champion. So, of course, they’re going to say this, that and the other. Some people say he’s #2 or #3 or #4. I don’t know.
“They caught Dereck at the right time. Why wasn’t David Haye in his corner? Someone that actually knows what they’re doing. Not just having mates in his corner in the biggest fight of his life,” said Dillian.
What Whyte says about Usyk being too weak and small is a fair statement. He is too limited in those areas to have a good chance at beating Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury.
It’s unclear whether Usyk even believes he has a chance of beating Joshua or Fury. The payday that Usyk gets against the winner of that fight will be worth it for him.
The worst thing that can happen for Usyk is for Joshua to vacate his WBO title and leave it for him to have to fight #2, Daniel Dubois, for it.
Joshua will knockout Usyk, says Dillian
“Usyk’s only game plan and chance against the likes of us is just to try and move and outwork us,” Whyte continued. “We’re big, strong guys, and we’ll rough him up. I would have been roughing him up.”
“I wouldn’t be playing any games. When I was clinching, I’d have been roughing him up, hitting him everywhere. I’d be manhandling him. That’s the cleanest I’ve ever seen Dereck box in his whole career. Maybe he got mesmerized. Dereck is usually an aggressive dirty boxer.
“Not if it’s against the likes of me, Joshua and Fury, no way,” Whyte said when asked if he thinks Usyk can become a heavyweight world champion. “But it could be. I think Joshua beats him.
“Joshua is going to knock him out because Joshua has got the size and power, and he’s a good active heavyweight. It’s not like he’s an old heavyweight, and Joshua has a proper team around him.
“I don’t know,” Whyte said when asked where does Chisora go from here. “He’s the King of comebacks. But I don’t know what level he’s going to come back to. Can he motivate himself to come back? I don’t know.”
Joshua would have an excellent chance of stopping Usyk, but only if he goes after him with combinations. AJ isn’t going to be able to knockout Usyk by landing one shot. He’s got to put his punches together.
Whyte training for Povetkin fight
“I went straight back into training and started working on what I did wrong.” It was little bits that needed sharpening up, and that’s what we’ve done,” Whyte said about his preparation for his rematch with Povetkin.
“My situation is different. It’s not like there’s an issue that needs exposing. It’s boxing. You get caught, and that’s it. I’m a very adaptable person. I don’t make excuses. I just get on with it.
Whatever I need to do, I just do it. I don’t complain about it. I’ll do the same as I always do and go out and fight and do my thing. I don’t care. And I don’t care what people think of me. I just go out and do what I have to do.
“I’ve been swimming against the waves my whole life and whole career. It’s nothing new to me,” Whyte said about his fight with Povetkin.
Whyte’s career as a major player could end on November 21 when he faces Alexander Povetkin in a rematch at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.
Dillian, 32, might not want to admit it, but his career is on the line in his rematch with Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KOs), and he cannot afford to lose. Whyte told the fans that he made a mistake last August when he was knocked cold in the 5th round by the 41-year-old Povetkin.
Some of the more impressionable boxing fans brought into Whyte’s excuse and believed that he wouldn’t make that mistake again in the rematch. But if former WBA heavyweight champion Povetkin stops Whyte a second time, it’s game over for the ‘Body Snatcher.’
The WBC mandatory position will be on the line for the Whyte vs. Povetkin rematch. Whoever wins the fight will be mandatory to WBC champion Tyson Fury. However, they’re still going to need to wait until Fury and Joshua fight twice in 2021 before they can get a crack at the WBC belt.