WBC expected to order Tyson Fury vs. Dillian Whyte today at convention

By Boxing News - 11/16/2021 - Comments

By Charles Brun: WBC is expected to order heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, to defend against mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte today at their convention in Mexico.

For Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn, he’ll be gleeful after the World Boxing Council order’s the fight with Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs), as it will box ‘The Gypsy King’ in, forcing him either face Dillian or vacate his WBC title.

Hearn and Whyte will likely get the good news from the WBC that they’ll be ordering Fury to defend against ‘The Body Snatcher’ next. Of course, that doesn’t mean he actually will.

Why would Fury waste time fighting Whyte, who was recently knocked cold by the 41-year-old pre-COVID-19 version of Oleksandr Povetkin in 2020?

The money fight for Fury is against the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk II rematch winner. Whyte is just Dereck Chisora 2.0 and a total waste of time.

Giving up the WBC belt is the logical move for Fury to make, given that he no longer needs it because he’s recognized as the #1 heavyweight on the planet now that he’s between Deontay Wilder twice in a row.

The WBC title is only needed for less known fighters, who need a belt to validate themselves in the eyes of casual boxing fans. Fury is at a different level where a world title belt is more for adornment purposes and unneeded.

“It’s a major fight if me and him can dust-up in the early part of next year in a stadium,” Whyte to Sky Sports about a fight with Tyson Fury.

Image: WBC expected to order Tyson Fury vs. Dillian Whyte today at convention

“It’s one that I’m looking forward to, and I think Tyson Fury will look forward to fighting me as well.

“I think logically he’ll [Fury] think, ‘You know what, this is a big fight, a good homecoming fight, and I think it should happen,'” said Whyte.

If Fury, 33, vacates the title, Whyte will be elevated to the new WBC heavyweight champion. That would make Hearn happy because he’ll then insist on cramming a fight between Dillian and the Anthony Joshua vs. Okeksander Usyk rematch winner down the fans’ throats.

Few people will want to see Whyte fighting the winner of the Joshua-Usyk 2 rematch, even if he does have possession of the WBC belt, and the fans will want to see Fury fighting the winner of that contest.

It’s Hearn’s dream to have Whyte fight Joshua for the undisputed championship, as it would be a Matchroom Boxing in-house fight in which only he has his hands on the gearshift of the promotion.

In other words, Hearn wouldn’t have to share the control of the fight with an outside promoter.

If Fury vacates his WBC title or is elevated to Franchise champion to swerve Whyte, the fans would come out the loser because instead of seeing Tyson fight the winner of the Joshua-Usyk 2 rematch, they’d likely be stuck seeing Dillian fight them. Whyte is a good fighter, but he’s arguably another version of Dereck Chisora.

There’s not much difference between Whyte and the 2014 version of Chisora that Fury destroyed in ten rounds. That version of Chisora is better than what we’ve seen from Whyte, with him getting starched by 41-year-old Alexander Povetkin in 2020 and struggling to beat journeyman Mariusz Wach in 2019.

Whyte has been his own worst enemy in the last three years, choosing not to participate in WBC-ordered title eliminators against Luis Ortiz and believing that he should be made mandatory without them.

Dillian would have gotten a title shot years ago if he’d agreed to fight the talented Cuban ‘King Kong’ Luis Ortiz when the WBC TWICE ordered him to face him. Whyte got things mixed up in his head, believing that his #1 ranking with the WBC automatically made him mandatory for champion Deontay Wilder.

Whyte chose not to fight Ortiz and thus was ignored by Wilder. When Dillian finally did fight a WBC eliminator against Oscar Rivas in 2019, he’d already wasted a lot of time.

Rivas was a winnable fight for Whyte, so it made sense for him to agree to a WBC title eliminator against him rather than Luis Ortiz, who likely would have beaten him.

Whyte would be backing into a title shot against WBC champion Fury after suddenly pulling out of his risky October 30th fight against Otto Wallin, saying he had a shoulder injury.

The boxing world believes that Whyte faked the injury and chose not to fight Wallin after learning that the WBC would be ordering Fury to fight him next.

It would have looked better on Whyte’s part to reschedule his fight with Wallin after his shoulder injury healed, but he feels it wouldn’t have made sense to face him in a lower-paying battle with no title on the line.

Nevertheless, Whyte still looks bad for not rescheduling because it furthers the perception the fans have that he faked his shoulder injury to swerve the Wallin fight.

Many boxing fans feel that when you commit to a fight against Wallin or whoever, you stick it out until the end rather than moving on. It’s a bad look on Whyte’s part that he came down with an injury and chose not to reschedule the fight with Wallin.