By Charles Brun: Dillian Whyte is confident that he will defeat Alexander Povetkin in their rematch next Saturday on ‘The Rock’ of Gibraltar on March 27th, which will be shown on DAZN in the States and Sky Box Office PPV in the UK.
Despite being knocked cold in the fifth round on August 22nd last year, Whyte (27-2, 18 KOs) feels he’ll beat the 41-year-old Povetkin even at his worst.
Dillian attributes his loss to former WBA heavyweight champion Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KOs) as a mistake rather than it being something special that he did.
What further gives Whyte confidence that he’ll have little problems winning the rematch is that he was dominating Povetkin through the first four rounds last time, and he’d put him down twice in the 4th.
Povetkin set Dillian up for the uppercut, waiting to spring on him, which he did in the fifth when he landed a perfect shot that ended the fight.
What Dillian has going for him now is the fact that Povetkin is coming off a bad COVID illness, and he only recently recovered. If he’s not at 100%, Whyte can use that to get an extra edge.
If Whyte loses this time, he needs to get a clue and leave it alone and recognize that he’s not good enough to beat Povetkin.
It doesn’t look good when a fighter loses and then keeps pushing for endless rematches to try and eventually get a win.
Whyte in a must-win situation
“This is the biggest fight of my career. I’m coming off a guy [Povetkin], and obviously, it’s the biggest fight of my career,” said Dillian Whyte to Matchroom Boxing. “But the good thing is, this is heavyweight boxing, one fight changes everything, and we’ll see.
“I’m sure this time when I beat him, we’ll see what people are going to say,” said Whyte. “One, two, three losses mean nothing to a heavyweight nowadays. If you’re fighting good fighters, the main thing is you can come back.
“This is a must-win fight for me. I’m not a guy that is worried about pressure. I take it in stride. I’m a very adaptable kind of guy.
“I do whatever I need to do to get the win. If I have to rough a guy up or outbox a guy or knock a guy out, I’ll do whatever it takes to get a win. The plan is to try and knock someone out if I can,” said Whyte.
Dillians’ promoter Eddie Hearn has warned him that he’s in a must-win situation, and he can’t afford another knockout loss. A second knockout defeat will throw Whyte further away from his dreams of fighting for a world title against Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury.
Those guys aren’t going to give Whyte a title shot out of mercy for him. No, he’s going to have to earn the shot, and he can’t do that if he keeps getting knocked out by Povetkin.
Most would agree that this is a stupid idea for Whyte to fight Povetkin again because he doesn’t need to be tempting fate again.
We already know that Whyte wasn’t good enough to beat Povetkin last time, and it doesn’t make sense to keep fighting with the hope of eventually beating him.
Will Dillian walk away if he defeats Povetkin on Saturday and not give him a rubber match? Where’s his sense of fairness? Povetkin didn’t walk away after beating Whyte.
It gives the appearance that this fight is all about Whyte to try and preserve his precious career at the expense of Povetkin, who would clearly deserve a trilogy match if he loses.
Dillian: I know I can beat Povetkin
“This time, I’m much more together,” said Whyte about his rematch with Povetkin. “I know deep down I can beat Povetkin anyway. I know 100% the best of me.
“Even the worst of me, I know that for a fact. I carry power in both hands, but Povetkin is a very cagey guy, very experienced, a very patient guy, a very tough guy.
“The last time, I didn’t land properly, and he went down. He showed resilience and got up and stopped me. So this time, I need to make sure when I hit him, he stays down.
“I made a mistake, and straightaway, I knew the mistake I made. It didn’t take me a long time to realize the mistake I made. Then it was, ‘Okay, it’s heavyweight boxing.’
“I wanted to get straight back in there and just get it over with and done with straight away. My mindset is that I’ll do whatever I need to do.
“I’m not worried about my career-best performance. I’m worried about getting the win.
“I’ve still got loads of fights in my career. I’m ready to go. When I touch him this time, his whole body is going to vibrate.
“I’m coming to do what I do best, and that’s to inflict pain. If I’ve to make it a dog fight, I’m going to make it a dog fight.
“Last time, I was boxing and fighting a bit. This time it’s going to be a different story, real, real different this time,” said Whyte.
What Povetkin has going for him in this fight is he’s already knocked Whyte out with an uppercut, so it’ll simply be a case of going back to that same punch to repeat the process.
The mistake that Whyte talks about having made against Povetkin is something he’s done in every fight as a pro, which is clearly something beyond fixing. I mean, Anthony Joshua and Oscar Rivas both dropped Whyte with the same uppercut.
Whyte hasn’t done anything to fix this flaw in his game, and it makes sense to expect it to still be there despite his lip service about having fixed the problem. Joseph Parker is another fighter that hurt Whyte with the same uppercut that Joshua, Rivas, and Povetkin did.
It seems likely that Whyte will be just as vulnerable to that punch as he always has, and if he gets hit with it, he’ll go to sleep once more.