By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn states that he’s waiting for a response to his offer to Dillian Whyte over the weekend for a rematch with Anthony Joshua on August 12th in London.
Hearn expects the negotiations with the 35-year-old top 10-ranked Whyte (29-3, 19 KOs) to be tough, but he says Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs) wants this fight.
It appears that Joshua has changed his mind about not wanting to fight Whyte because last week, he didn’t seem interested in this match-up when he posted on Instagram. In hindsight, that move by Joshua could have been to ensure that Whyte didn’t ask for too much money during negotiations.
This fight has money-grab written all over it, as it plays to the older boxing fans that used to be keen on watching Whyte when he was beating fringe contenders like Mariusz Wach, Lucas Browne, Derek Chisora, and Oscar Rivas. The older, dewy-eyed Brits will love Joshua vs. Whyte, but the younger ones will see it as the dumpster fire that it is.
If the fight is made with the 35-year-old Whyte, Joshua, 33, will use it as a warm-up for a December match against former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia.
At once a decent contender, Whyte is now a faded old veteran, having arguably lost three out of his last four fights since 2020. In Whyte’s last fight seven months ago, he was given a controversial 12 round majority decision over Jermaine Franklin in London last November.
“The offer was made to Dillian over the weekend. We are waiting for his response to that, and we’ll talk today,” said Eddie Hearn to BBC Sport about his making an offer to journeyman Dillian Whyte to fight Anthony Joshua on August 12th.
“Dillian has a lot of value in the rematch. This is a big fight between two world-class heavyweights and huge British names.
“The negotiations will be difficult, but AJ and Whyte want the fight,” said Hearn.
For fans who thought Devin Haney’s win over Vasily Lomachenko was a robbery, this was far worse. The only reason it didn’t make huge headlines is that Whyte isn’t a popular fighter worldwide.
Some Brits still like Whyte in the same way they like journeyman Derek Chisora. They like simple sluggers who win some of the time but lose when they’re stepped up against quality opposition.
Whyte was given a decision over Jermaine Franklin by the scores 116-112, 116-112, and 115-115. This writer had Franklin winning 9-3. Interestingly, Joshua had Franklin winning as well, so it’s surprising that he’s choosing to take his career backward by fighting Whyte.
AJ might as well take a rematch with Franklin because he’d at least be fighting a better fighter that would give him a good tune-up.
