By Charles Brun: Promoter Eddie Hearn wants to get free-agent heavyweight Dillian ‘Body Snatcher’ Whyte back in action “asap” following his loss to WBC champion Tyson Fury on April 23rd.
Hearn says he’s going to have a “chat” with the 34-year-old Whyte (28-3, 19 KOs) because he feels there are “great fights” out there for him.
Whyte has looked poor in the majority of his last six fights, and it’s a miracle that he was given a world title shot in the first place.
As long as Hearn matches Whyte carefully against older fighters and domestic-level opposition, he should be fine. If Hearn can work his magic by matching Whyte the way he’s doing with welterweight Conor Benn, he can get him a title shot.
Putting Whyte in with anyone with power or talent could be a disaster, and Hearn is likely too smart to make that mistake.
If not for the World Boxing Council letting Whyte fight the undersized heavyweight Oscar Rivas instead of Luis Ortiz in a WBC title eliminator in 2019, there’s a good chance that he would have never gotten a title shot.
Ortiz would have been a horrible match-up for Whyte, whose shaky punch resistance likely would have betrayed him against the hard-hitting Cuban.
It’s unclear what big fights Hearn has in mind for Whyte because he’s not likely to get a world title shot again anytime soon, if ever, and he can forget about Deontay Wilder fighting him.
Ex-heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. likely won’t bother fighting Whyte because he’s facing 43-year-old Luis Ortiz next. That match might lead to the popular American getting a title shot against the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk rematch.
Whyte put in an abysmal performance against WBC champion Fury in their main event fight at Wembley Stadium in London.
Whyte came out in a southpaw stance, looking awkward and uncomfortable until abandoning that. In rounds two through six, Whyte was easily outboxed by Fury, failing to make adjustments and eventually getting stopped in the sixth after walking into a big uppercut.
“Firstly, we’re going to talk as mates. He’s reached out to me, and we’re going to have a chat,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV about the free-agent Dillian Whyte.
“I feel like there were things that he could have done better in the build-up to that fight and the fight itself,” Hearn continued about Whyte about his recent April 23rd sixth-round knockout loss to WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
“I feel like it was a little bit of a missed opportunity that fight for him. I wasn’t involved in the build-up for anything.
“Even when he ring-walked and everything and at the press conferences and the weigh-ins. It didn’t feel like the Dillian Whyte ‘Body Snatcher’ energy.
“Dillian is a ferocious heavyweight that puts fear in people. I didn’t get that edge from him. So, I’d like to sit down and talk about that and get him back in the ring as soon as possible,” said Hearn.
It wouldn’t have mattered if Whyte had shown more fire in his belly in the build-up to the Fury fight; he would always lose that match. Watching Whyte struggle to defeat journeyman Dillian Whyte and Mariusz Wach in the last three years showed his level.
Again, Whyte likely would have never been the WBC mandatory for Fury if he’d fought a decent heavyweight like Luis Ortiz instead of Oscar Rivas.
In hindsight, Whyte was wise not to fight Ortiz when the WBC ordered him to fight the Cuban talent in title eliminators.
“I think there are some great fights out there for him, and hopefully, we can be part of the team that has been through a lot with him and taken him through some great fights and get him back asap.”
Hearn isn’t saying what those “great fights” are out there for Whyte, but these would be good options:
- Otto Wallin
- Alen Babic
- Derek Chisora
- David Allen
- Kash Ali
“I saw that in the picture on Instagram, yeah,” said Hearn about a photo of Whyte and Anthony Joshua that Dillian posted on social media this week.
