By Charles Brun: Dillian Whyte isn’t happy that the “cherry picker” Tyson Fury calls himself the #1 guy in the division despite him having chosen not to fight him in the past.
Unlike others, Whyte isn’t impressed with Fury’s wins over Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder in the past.
Dillian feels like he would have beaten former WBC heavyweight champion, Wilder if he’d gotten to him first, and then he would be the one that is being praised and adored by boxing fans the way the ‘Gypsy King’ is now.
Unfortunately, Wilder chose NOT to fight Whyte, and instead, he took on Fury in a move that backfired with him getting a draw in their first fight in 2018 and a seventh-round knockout loss in their rematch in February 2020.
The 33-year-old Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs), who recently defeated the COVID 19, recovered 41-year-old Alexander Povetkin last month on March 27th at Gibraltar.
While the victory didn’t do much for Whyte’s popularity, given how depleted and old Povetkin looked after recovering from a rough bout with COVID, it at least put him in position for a lucrative title shot.
Whyte’s victory over Povetkin earned him the interim WBC heavyweight title, putting him in the top slot for a fight against the winner of the two Fury vs. Anthony Joshua fights in 2022.
“Fury calls himself the greatest of all time, yet has turned down fights against me, even when ordered by the WBC,” Dillian Whyte to Sky Sports on whether Fury should be viewed as the #1 heavyweight.
“He’s avoided me two times before, so let’s see, but who knows,” said Whyte.
Dillian isn’t in a position to throw stones at Fury for him ducking a fight against him, as we already saw him choose not to fight Luis Ortiz in a WBC-ordered title eliminator as far back as 2018.
If Whyte had taken the fight against the talented ‘King Kong’ Ortiz and won, he’d have already gotten his crack at the WBC title a long time ago, and he wouldn’t be complaining now the way he is.
Some boxing fans think Whyte was scared of the Cuban Ortiz because of his technical skills, punching power, and southpaw stance. It would have been a much tougher puzzle for Whyte to figure out than the guys he was fighting back then.
During that portion of Whyte’s career, he was facing Dereck Chisora, Robert Helenius, ‘Big Daddy’ Lucas Browne, and Joseph Parker. In other words, flawed guys that presented less of a threat to Dillian than the 6’4″ ‘King Kong’ Ortiz would have.
“Fury and Wilder get too much credit for their padded, cherry-picked records and have only beaten one current Ring Magazine top 10 fighter each,” said Whyte.
Dillian has no argument from fans about Fury having a “cherry-picked” record. That much is obvious from taking a quick glance.
What Whyte isn’t saying is Fury should have a knockout loss to Wilder from their first fight in 2018, which is the one where he was knocked cold in the 12th, and the referee unbelievably gave him a count. That was a comedy and very disturbing to watch.
These are arguably Fury’s past cherry-picked opponents:
- Otto Wallin
- Sefer Seferi
- Joey Abell
- Tom Schwarz
- Francesco Pianeta
- Dereck Chisora
- Christian Hammer
- Steve Cunningham
- Kevin Johnson
- Martin Rogan
Whyte’s record isn’t much better, unfortunately, and his knockout defeat against 40-year-old Povetkin last year looks bad. After seeing that loss, it’s impossible to make the argument that Whyte deserves to be the #1 heavyweight in the division.
His win over the COVID-19 recovered Povetkin does nothing to redeem him because the Russian fighter looked like he just climbed out of a hospital bed to take the fight with Dillian. Charles Brun can’t count that as a true win for Whyte. It looked more like an exhibition bout, if anything.