By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says Dillian Whyte will be next for WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury as long as he defeats Otto Wallin on October 30th. Hearn states that Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) has to fight somebody while waiting for the smoke to clear from the March rematch between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk.
It’ll be surprising if Whyte gets his title shot against Fury because there’s too much money on the line for ‘The Gypsy King’ to face the Joshua-Usyk 2 winner.
I mean, who needs Whyte when there’s a huge pot of gold for Fury to scoop up by fighting the winner of the Joshua vs. Usyk 2 fight? With the money Fury makes fighting Joshua, he can purchase the late billionaire J. Paul Getty’s old mansion, Sutton Place in Surrey, and live like a King.
We recently saw how much effort Fury put into swerving the contractual rematch with Deontay Wilder to face Joshua in a massive money fight last August in Saudi Arabia.
Will Fury be made WBC Franchise champion?
If Fury was willing to put that much work into circumventing his rematch clause with Wilder, you could bet that he’ll do the same for his cumbersome WBC mandatory commitment to an upset-minded Dillian.
There’s no other natural choice but for Fury to be made WBC Franchise champion so he can remove Whyte from the equation.
You got to know that Top Rank boss Bob Arum won’t want Fury risking all that loot from a fight between the Joshua vs. Usyk II winner by having Tyson take on Whyte.
As long as Whyte beats Wallin, Fury will have no choice but to fight him in 2022, as long as he doesn’t vacate his WBC title.
One potential nightmare for Hearn would be if Fury’s promoters at Top Rank make the clever move to ask the WBC to make him the Franchise champion?
That’s an obvious move that Top Rank and Fury should make because there’s too much money at stake for him to face the winner of the Joshua vs. Usyk II fight for him to be taking a risky interim title defense against mandatory challenger Whyte.
Arum is likely going to look at this from a business angle, and he’s not going to want Fury to risk losing out on a massive payday fight against the Joshua vs. Usyk 2 winner by facing a dangerous puncher like Whyte.
Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) is already the WBC mandatory for Fury, but he’s still got to beat Wallin (22-1, 14 KOs) this month on October 30th at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Despite the risky fight with Wallin still in front of Whyte, Hearn is already predicting how many pay-per-view buys the Fury-Whyte will generate in 2022.
Whyte must beat Wallin on Oct.30th
“On Saturday, we officially exercised that in writing,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV on Anthony Joshua activating his rematch clause for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk. “K2 came back and said, ‘Great, let’s start planning for the rematch.
“Dillian Whyte is the mandatory for Tyson Fury, and that’ll be called in 30 days time,” Hearn continued.
“Obviously, Dillian has a massive fight at the O2 with Otto Wallin, but he’s the mandatory challenger for Tyson Fury. It’s a brilliant fight. I’d like to see Tyson back in the UK. He hasn’t boxed in the UK in three years or four years. It’s a massive fight for the division.
“You’ve got to give Dillian credit for going in there. He fought [Alexander] Povetkin before, and he had to come back and win that rematch.
“Now he goes in for another tough fight against Otto Wallin, and he’s ready to make a statement on October 30th and then move forward and fight Tyson Fury. He’s mandatory now.
“They [World Boxing Council] have to give Fury 30 days, which is what they [WBC] said in their statement. They shouldn’t do 30 days because contractually, Tyson Fury can’t fight Oleksandr Usyk. So there’s no point in having that 30 says, in my opinion.
“They should have ordered the Dillian Whyte mandatory ages ago, but they should be ordering it now. But if we have to wait 30 days, so be it, and then Dillian will get the job done at the O2 [against Wallin],” Hearn said.
Hearn shouldn’t assume anything about the Whyte vs. Wallin fight on October 30th. Yeah, Whyte should beat Wallin, but it won’t be surprising at all to Charles Brun if he loses that fight.
Whyte looked horrible against the healthy 40-year-old Alexander Povetkin in 2020, getting knocked out in the fifth round.
You can argue the only reason Whyte won the rematch last March is because Povetkin was coming off a terrible case of COVID-19 in late 2020.
Had that been the same version of Povetkin that we saw in early 2020, Whyte would have been up the creek without a paddle in the rematch with the powerful Russian fighter.
We saw Whyte struggle to beat the 40-year-old Mariusz Wach in December 2019 on the undercard of Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. II in Saudi Arabia.
Whyte is a good heavyweight, but he sometimes falls apart when facing decent opposition, especially when they have power and size. As such, there’s an excellent chance Wallin will beat Whyte on October 30th and ruin Hearn’s vision for a Fury-Whyte fight in early 2022.
Arum is already predicting that the big 6’6″ Wallin will defeat Whyte because he doesn’t view Dillian as a good heavyweight.
If that’s the case, Hearn will have worked himself up to a fever pitch over the Fury vs. Whyte fight for nothing. Hearn is like an anxious kid that can’t wait to open up his Christmas presents.
Fury will have to fight somebody
“Then we get a massive fight between two Brits [Fury and Whyte] for the Ring Magazine and WBC world titles,” said Hearn in talking about what comes next for Dillian if he beats Wallin on October 30th.
“I don’t see why Tyson wouldn’t want to fight Dillian Whyte. It’s a huge payday and a massive event, and then the winner of that fight can go and fight the winner of AJ against Usyk.
“The WBC statement was quite clear. The winner of Fury against Wilder has to fight the interim world champion [Whyte]. If Fury becomes Franchise champion, we can’t do the undisputed fight.
“If AJ is going to fight Usyk in February or March, Fury is going to have to fight. So who else is there? As fans, we should be calling for that fight [Fury vs. Dillian Whyte]. Don’t you think? Fury vs. Whyte, imagine the build-up.
“It does well over a million pay-per-view buys; it sells out a stadium. It’s huge. Tyson Fury will believe he wins that fight, and it’s not like he’s scared of Dillian Whyte or anything like that.
“So with AJ fighting Usyk, what other fight do you want to see Tyson Fury? That is the fight, so let’s see it. Hopefully, AJ bests Usyk, and then the winner of Whyte against Fury fights the winner of that fight. It’s pretty straightforward,” said Hearn.
Fury needs to fight someone while waiting for the smoke to clear from the Joshua vs. Usyk 2 fight in early 2022. Unless Fury wants to sit on his backside, eating grapes while waiting for the outcome of that fight, he needs to fight someone.
If Top Rank makes the smart move by having Fury made WBC Franchise champion, they can set up a stay busy fight for the Gypsy King to take in early 2022 so that they can stay sharp.
Someone like Andy Ruiz Jr., Luis Ortiz, or Michael Hunter would be perfect for Fury to get some rounds in to keep him on his toes in the first half of 2022.
Tyson vs. Whyte = massive fight
“It’s pretty obvious; Dillian Whyte is your mandatory. It’s a massive fight,” said Hearn. “It’s the biggest fight out there for Tyson Fury besides AJ and Usyk by a mile. So let’s get it on.
“It’s next within 90 days. I don’t think we need a purse bid [for Fury vs. Whyte], and I believe we can get a deal done for that fight. Wherever that fight makes sense, we can move forward.
“It’s a brilliant fight, so let’s get the job done at the O2 [for Whyte vs. Wallin] on October 30th and move forward and make another brilliant heavyweight fight,” said Hearn.
Fury vs. Whyte would be a massive fight in the UK, but it would be risky for Tyson, and it makes no sense business-wise. It’ll be surprising if it happens because Fury likely is made WBC Franchise champion so that he can remove Whyte from his hair.