By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn predicts an 11th round knockout victory for challenger Dillian Whyte over WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury on April 23rd.
Whyte, 34, looked powerful in his last fight against 41-year-old Alexander Povetkin the previous year. Still, the victory was slightly diminished due to the Russian fighter coming off a bad case of Covid-19 in the months before their rematch.
Hearn insists that Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) lacks the punching power to score a stoppage over WBC interim champion Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs), and that’ll be forced to labor into the deeper rounds against the upset-minded challenger.
It would certainly be helpful to Hearn if Whyte, a fighter that he works with, were to dethrone Fury.
There would be a lucrative rematch between Whyte and Fury under that scenario, or possibly a rematch between Dillian and Hearn promoted Anthony Joshua. The fox-like Hearn would have them coming and going.
“What round will Dillian Whyte be KO’d in? He won’t be KO’d. Fury, in my opinion, doesn’t carry the power to take Dillian Whyte out,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing.
“I believe, actually, that when they trade up left hooks, Tyson Fury will go to sleep and he will go to sleep in round 11,” predicts Hearn.
Hearn will literally make a KILLING in dough if Whyte defeats Fury on April 23rd. Poor Fury would be in a situation where he might have to sit and take a backseat. At the same time, Whyte moves on to defend his newly won WBC heavyweight strap against Anthony Joshua or potentially IBF/WBA/WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk if he returns from the war in Ukraine.
The unthinkable would be Whyte defeating Fury, Joshua, and Usyk to run the table in 2022. That would be a dream for Hearn, who would sit back with a grin as big as the Cheshire cat from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
To be sure, Whyte would be an unlikely winner at the end of these three fights this year, as he’s looked like a ham-and-egger in recent fights against Mariusz Wach, Povetkin [first contest], and Dereck Chisora.
The way Whye performed in those three contests, it’s unfeasible to imagine him beating Fury, Joshua, and Usyk in 2022 or spread out over two years.
Assuming Whyte does defeat Fury, it’s going to turn the boxing world upside down, shocking fans and giving Dillian & Hearn the chance to boast without end.
It would be interesting to see if Whyte takes the high road and choose not to gloat about his victory over Fury. That would be classy on Whyte’s part if he opted not to kick a dog while he’s down by trashing poor Fury in his moment of weakness after suffering his first career defeat.
Of course, that wouldn’t prevent Hearn from reveling in Whyte’s upset win, feasting on the glory, and enjoying bellyaching from upset Fury fans.
It would be nice obviously if Whyte continued to stay silent and didn’t take the opportunity to lash out in a snarling fashion at his many detractors in his moment of glory.
Again, it won’t stop Hearn from drinking in the success of Whyte’s victory and reliving every moment of his win for the fans willing to listen to him talk. The win would probably mean more to Hearn than it would Whyte because it would give him a perch to crow about the accomplishment.
Fury vs. Whyte be headlining on April 23rd at Wembley Stadium in London, England. There’s a strong possibility that Fury-Whyte will break the attendance record for the stadium with 100,000 fans in attendance on the night.
Thus far, 85,000 tickets have already been sold for the fight, which is an incredible number at this early juncture.