By Charles Brun: WBC interim heavyweight champion Dillian Whyte will be fighting on October 30th at the O2 Arena in London, UK. None of the guys that have been mentioned for the 33-year-old Whyte are a real threat to him, and it’s understandable why.
It doesn’t take a fortune-teller to predict accurately that Whyte will wind up facing the weakest link of the three options that promoter Eddie Hearn has for him.
In other words, Whyte will almost surely wind up facing Jermaine Franklin, a fighter whose best win on his resume is a controversial 10 round split decision over Jerry Forrest in 2019.
No new names for Dillian Whyte
Dillian already lost once to Alexander Povetkin, and he can’t afford to lose a second time if he wants to get a title shot in 2022.
Whyte made a big deal about his recent win over 41-year-old Povetkin in their rematch last March, but he was facing him post-COVID-19 after he’d come back from a bad illness.
If not for that, Whyte’s career might be on skidrow with him losing a second time. The reality is, Whyte is chinny, vulnerable, and not good enough to beat the top-tier level fighters.
The potential opponent is the same Americans that Hearn has mentioned in the past, which isn’t surprising he wants to match Whyte up against a U.S fighter to try and build his profile in the States.
His opponent, according to Hearn, will be one of these suspects:
- Chris Arreola
- Jermaine Franklin
- Charles Martin
“Dillian, I’m just trying to finalize an opponent, really, and then we’re ready to go. Chris Arreola, Jermaine Franklin, Charles Martin, and a few others,” said Hearn to iFL TV on the potential opponent for Dillian Whyte’s next fight on October 30th.
Hearn nervous about Joshua vs. Usyk
“I’m sure they do,” said Hearn when told that people believe Oleksandr Usyk will beat Anthony Joshua.
“It’s two Olympic gold medalists; It’s the unified heavyweight world champion against the [former] undisputed cruiserweight champion of the world [Usyk], who is on the pound-for-pound list.
“It’s a proper fight,” a touchy Hearn said about the Joshua vs. Usyk clash. “So am I nervous? Yeah.
“I’m excited because I know how good AJ is, and I know these are the kind of fights that he can prove he’s the best heavyweight in the world.
“He is the best heavyweight in the world, and that’s why I believe he’ll win the fight. I think it’ll be tough, I think it’ll be tricky, but I believe he wins.
“But what a great fight. If you can’t get up for nights like this, you should pack it in, mate.
“A heavyweight world championship at Tottenham Hotspurs. The ground is unbelievable. It’s going to be a night to remember,” Hearn said.
With Joshua already having lost to Andy Ruiz Jr. and dodged a defeat against past his prime 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko, you can understand Hearn’s apprehension about the Usyk fight.
Hearn is sitting on top of a goldmine with Joshua as his golden goose, and if he gets knocked out by Oleksandr Usyk on September 25th, he could be facing career oblivion.
A loss for Joshua would mean that he would need to rematch Usyk, which would throw off Hearn’s hopes of matching AJ against WBC champion Tyson Fury in early 2022.
Here’s the danger about Joshua fighting a rematch with Usyk. If Joshua loses that fight too, his career as a big money-maker would be over, basically.
Usyk will have plucked Hearn’s golden goose clean, leaving him a naked shell. Knowing Joshua, he probably would push for a third fight with Usyk, but it would be totally pathetic at that point. Joshua would need to be saved from himself.
Fury vs. Wilder 3: Will it happen on Oct.9th?
“They’ve got a fight on October the 9th, and I don’t think it’ll happen,” said Hearn in doubting Fury-Wilder 3 will take place on that date.
“I said last time that fight wouldn’t happen, and it didn’t happen,” Hearn said about the Fury vs. Wilder III clash needing to be moved off the July 24th date due to Tyson getting COVID-19.
“It’s six weeks. We’re not interested in talking about that fight. We have business to take care of on September 25th,” Hearn said about Joshua vs. Usyk.
Hearn might be right about the Fury vs. Wilder 3 fight likely not happening, but it probably won’t because of Deontay.
Fury seems to be scattered and not focused on boxing like he was in the past, and you can understand why. When you make a fortune in a short period of time, it changes you.
Fury has so much money now that it’s got to be difficult for him to train as he used to when he was an average Joe.
As such, if Fury starts getting banged around by his hungry sparring partners like Jared Anderson, he’s going to realize that he needs more time before fighting Wilder.
The result will be Fury pulling out again and asking for more time. The World Boxing Council will need to strip Fury of his title and give it to Whyte.
It’s already been a year and a half since Fury won the WBC title, and he’s been sitting on it all this time, letting the belt collect cobwebs. If Fury pulls out of the Wilder fight for any reason, the WBC needs to strip him and give it to Whyte.
They should have already done it because it’s a joke the way Fury has been holding that title hostage.
Joshua vs. Usyk could have sold 200,000 tickets
“A monster show, the whole world watching. An unbelievable fight between two great heavyweights. Let’s see that unfold first. We could have gone to Wembley [for the Joshua vs. Usyk fight.
“It’s a great stadium. We could have sold 200,000 tickets easily,” said Hearn. 100%, There were 54,000 people in the queue trying to buy tickets online,” said Hearn about the boxing fans trying to get tickets for Joshua – Usyk on September 25th.
If Hearn is right about the demand for tickets for the Joshua-Usyk fight, he shouldn’t have staged it for the 62,000 seat Hotspurs Stadium. It would be a no-brainer for the fight to take place at Wembley Stadium.
Hearn should have created a Woodstock type of outside stadium on the huge Matchroom HQ property and let 200,000+ fans stream in and sit on the grass and watch the fight with binoculars.
I bet Hearn’s neighbors would be furious, but oh well. At least he could make more money off the Joshua vs. Usyk fight.
Pacquiao shouldn’t fight Ugas again
“The last two or three days, I thought, ‘Ugas is going to win this on points,” said Hearn about his thoughts going into last Saturday’s Manny Pacquiao vs. Yordenis Ugas fight.
“I woke up, and Ugas won on points, and I didn’t Tweet it. It wasn’t said to see, but when you think of what a legend Manny Pacquiao was.
“What is he? An eight-division world champion from mini flyweight coming up to over 150 pounds at times. He’s just not the same fighter.
“In a way, I’m glad he didn’t fight Errol Spence because I think he might have gotten hurt in that fight or stopped in that fight because Errol is a bit more brutal than Ugas.
“Also, it’s very difficult with a week to go to switch up from Errol Spence to Ugas. Errol Spence is a southpaw, and Ugas is orthodox.
“I know it’s easier to switch that way when you’ve got a replacement, but still, it’s tough to do. I think he [Pacquiao] probably felt, ‘I’ve done camp; this is probably my last fight.’
“Yeah, maybe. I wouldn’t like to see that,” said Hearn when told that Pacquiao said earlier on Wednesday that he may rematch Ugas.
“You could tell he’s not the fighter he once was, but some of his best wins have been during this era when he wasn’t the fighter he once was.
“Keith Thurman [fight] should go down as one of the greatest victories because even in that fight, he wasn’t in his prime.
“But it was probably one fight too many, and obviously the delay as well. With older fighters being out of the ring two years, a year and a half, it’s tough on them,” said Hearn.
Pacquiao obviously misjudged how talented Yordenis Ugas was when he agreed to face him on two weeks’ notice. What a colossal mistake.
