By Charles Brun: WBC interim heavyweight champion Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte called on Deontay Wilder and Andy Ruiz Jr on Thursday, saying he wants to fight either of them next. At the same time, he waits for the smoke to clear from the two Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury fights.
It’s going to be a while before Whyte, 32, can fight for a world title against the winner of the Joshua – Fury fights. We’re probably looking at the second half of 2022 before Whyte gets his title shot, but even then, it’s hard to say if it’ll be against Joshua or Fury.
With Matchroom Boxing’s contract with Sky ending in July, Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) says he’s a promotional and network-free agent and able to go anywhere. He’s looking at various offers that are coming in for where he’ll be fighting next.
Whyte says he’s been Matchroom for five years, and they’ve still not set him up for a world title shot in all that time.
Of course, Whyte didn’t help his situation at all with his fifth-round knockout loss to Alexander Povetkin in August of last year.
Although Whyte avenged the defeat by stopping Povetkin in the fourth round on March 27th in Gibraltar, he’d already blown his chance for a world title shot against WBC champion Tyson Fury by losing to the Russian fighter last year.
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Besides wanting to fight Wilder or Ruiz Jr next, Whyte says he’s open to facing the recently beaten Chris ‘The Nightmare’ Arreola. Whyte saw Chris’s fight against Ruiz Jr on May 1st, and he had Arreola winning the fight by a 12 round split decision.
Dillian doesn’t think Ruiz Jr will agree to fight him because he says his promoter Eddie Hearn already offered him the same amount of money [$5 million] that he got to fight Joshua, and he turned it down.
Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) hasn’t shown much interest in fighting Whyte either, and it’s not likely he’ll agree to take that fight. The guy that Wilder could face next is Ruiz if his team is willing to make the match.
Whyte looked great in his last fight against Povetkin, and he may have scared away the top heavyweights with that performance. This wasn’t the same Povetkin that had knocked Whyte out last year in August, though.
Povetkin had a base case of COVID 19 that he dealt with during the winter, and he didn’t look physically the same in the rematch with Whyte as he did last year.
If Whyte can’t get Ruiz or Wilder to agree to fight him, these are good options:
- Chris Arreola
- Otto Wallin
- Michael Hunter
- Filip Hrgovic
- Joe Joyce
- Daniel Dubois
- Joseph Parker
- Derek Chisora