By Scott Gilfoid: Dillian Whyte could lose out if he fails to act quickly to set up a fight with WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury for March 26th. If Whyte loses his chance, oh well, it would be just another example of him fumbling an opportunity.
At 33, Whyte is getting old and he’s not going to keep getting these chances for him to flush down the toilet with his decision-making.
Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn has sounded defiant, insisting on continuing his push for a bigger split than the 80/20 that the World Boxing Council recently determined.
It’s believed that Hearn is looking for a split in a 60-40 or 75/35 region, which would be a massive payday for Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs).
Whyte is wrecking his chance
However, if you go by the purses Whyte and Fury made in their last fights, the split should be 85/15 would be the most accurate rather than 80/20.
Whyte’s purse for his rematch with the post-COVID-19 Alexander Povetkin last March: $300,000. Last October, fury’s purse for his trilogy match against Deontay Wilder was $20 million.
With that colossal disparity of purses, the World Boxing Council is doing Whyte a massive favor by giving him an 80/20 split.
If Hearn does get his way with the arbitrators agreeing to bump up Whyte’s purse to 60/40 or even 55/45, it’s evident that Fury will vacate his WBC title the second after that ruling comes down.
It’s disappointing that after years of Whyte grumbling about not being given a title shot, he’s on the verge of one, but he’s going to blow his chance.
We really don’t know what Hearn and Whyte’s angle is with them pushing hard for the 55/45 split.
Do they believe they’re going to get it, or is this a ploy to force Fury to vacate his WBC title shot that Dillian can be elevated to the full championship status without risking another loss?
Wishing for another reality
Now that the WBC has determined that the split for the Fury-Whyte will be, Dillian needs to get on with it already and start negotiating with Fury’s management.
The WBC has already spoken and determined that the split will be 80/20 in favor of Fury.
THE FURY BOYS,
next generation…………. let the games begin.🙏😎 pic.twitter.com/PCv9zrDCiD— TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) January 13, 2022
For Whyte and Hearn to continue to push for a bigger split, it suggests that they haven’t accepted reality. If they don’t like the split, they can do one of two things.
Things could have been much different for Whyte had he not been knocked out in the fourth round by the 40-year-old Povetkin in 2020. The mistakes Whyte made in that fight cost him.
What about the errors in judgment Whyte made when he failed to fight Luis Ortiz in a title eliminator in 2018 when it was ordered by the WBC?
Had Whyte agreed to the title eliminator with Ortiz way back then, he’d have already gotten a world title shot by 2019 at the latest, and he would be complaining 24/7 like he’s been doing.
Whyte had chances for title eliminators, and he didn’t take them when they were first offered. Moreover, Whyte had the opportunity to fight former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, and he didn’t take it.
If you could wish for a different reality, Whyte and Hearn would have made the right decisions in 2018 and 2020.
If everything was done perfectly by Dillian, he might even be champion today, heading into an undisputed clash with IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Instead, Dillian is stubbornly putting up a fight, trying to get a larger purse split from the WBC, despite the organization having already made their ruling.
Move on or agree to it and try to beat Fury so they can get a bigger split in the rematch.
There will be a rematch if Whyte because Fury because there’s no way on earth that Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) will walk away from Whyte without insisting on a rematch if he gets beaten.
Arum wants to get it over with
“He can get a good payday and prove that he is of a world-class caliber by taking on Fury,” said Arum to Sky Sports about Whyte.
“We’d like to do that fight. It’s a good fight for the UK,”
Arum continued.
Arum can’t drag Whyte into the right with Fury kicking & screaming if he’s intent on royally messing things up. All he can do is let Whyte and Hearn decide for themself if they want the fight.
If they intend to fumble the opportunity, Fury will move on to his Plan-B option of fighting Andy Ruiz Jr. or Robert Helenius.
Ultimately, it could cost Fury his WBC title if he chooses to move on rather than giving Whyte the 55/45 split he wants, but that’s a small cost for peace of mind. In the end, Fury isn’t going to be held over a barrel by Whyte in this one.
The split has already been determined, and if the WBC changes it, the result will inevitably see Fury vacate and move on to bigger and better things against Ruiz or Helenius.
Not having the WBC title in his possession will NOT prevent Fury from getting first dibs in fighting the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr 2 rematch.
The ONLY way Whyte can take that fight away from Fury is by agreeing to the 80/20 split, negotiating the fight with Arum, and then beating him on March 26th to capture his WBC title.
“Whyte should sit down with myself and [Fury’s UK promoter] Frank Warren and work out a deal for a guarantee, and we’ll get this show on the road,” said Arum.
“Come to the table and let’s see if we can carve out a real deal,” said Arum in sounding like a parent.
“That is up to Tyson,” Arum said of Fury potentially fighting Robert Helenius or Andy Ruiz Jr. if they can’t set up a fight with Whyte. “We have discussed other opponents.”
“If the fight is a week later or two weeks later? It’s not the end of the world,” said Arum of Fury, fighting a little later than his March 26th preferred date.
It’s going to be interesting to see if Whyte will shoot himself in the foot, and lose out on his massive-money clash with Fury with his ham-handed approach to making the fight.
If Whyte losses out, Andy Ruiz Jr. will likely be the one that benefits from this, as he’s expected to be Fury’s Plan-B backup.