Chisora vs. Whyte II possible for Joshua-Klitschko card

By Boxing News - 12/14/2016 - Comments

Image: Chisora vs. Whyte II possible for Joshua-Klitschko card

By Scott Gilfoid: We might be seeing a rematch between British heavyweights Dillian Whyte (20-1, 15 KOs) and Dereck Chisora (26-7, 18 KOs) on the April 29th undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko card on Sky Box Office PPV at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Chisora is open to a rematch against Whyte if the money is right.

Chisora, 32, wants a rematch against Whyte period to avenge his controversial 12 round split decision loss last Saturday night on the undercard of the Joshua vs. Eric Molina card at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

Chisora saw himself winning the fight by three rounds at least. Some boxing fans think that the only reason Whyte won the fight was because his promoter Eddie Hearn was the lead promoter on the card, and Whyte was one of his fighters. Chisora is promoted by Sauerland Events. Never the less, the decision was a controversial one, as Whyte did appear to lose the fight in the eyes of a lot of fans. They think Whyte got an old fashioned hometown decision. Chisora landed the better punches in the fight, and he’s the one who was the more active guy in most of the rounds. Whyte was mainly just throwing jabs.

Chisora appeared to win the fight in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans, but the three judges scored the fight 115-113, 115-114 for Whyte, and 115-114 for Chisora. Boxing News 24 had Chisora winning a comfortable decision nine rounds to three. It seemed like a pretty cut and dried fight to score. Chisora had Whyte hurt three times in the fight, and appeared to knock him down in the 12th, but wasn’t given credit for it. Whyte was not only hurt on numerous occasions, he was also sent flying around the ring a couple of times. I’m not sure what fight the judges were watching, but they clearly weren’t watching the fight that took place on the night.

Chisora said this to skysports.com about the Whyte fight:

“I think the crowd and I believe the whole world knew I had the decision, and I won by two, three rounds,” said Chisora. “Why the judges didn’t think I won it, I don’t know why? Even the last round he touched the canvas, but they didn’t count that. When he went through the ropes, I don’t understand why? If the ropes weren’t there he would have been on the floor.”

Sometimes judges have an off night, and you can argue that the two judges that gave the fight to Whyte just didn’t have a good night due to them scoring the fight for the guy that appeared to lose in the eyes of the fans. It must have been hard for the judges to score the fight with all the cheering for Whyte.

The fight was a WBC eliminator match, so Whyte can technically fight for a world title against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in the future. Wilder isn’t going to defend his title against Whyte anytime soon. I’d be very surprised if Whyte gets a title shot against the 6’7” Deontay before 2018. Deontay has other options available to him in 2017. One of them is a fight against the winner of the Alexander Povetkin vs. Bermard Stiverne fight. Wilder could also fight the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko fight or WBO champion Joseph Parker.

There’s also a small chance of a fight against unbeaten Hughie Fury.

“He better take it, there is nowhere for him to go,” said Chisora. “Where is he going to make more money? There is nowhere. I can go make more money, but he can’t, so he will take it. If Eddie Hearn decides to come with a better offer, yes we might do it at Wembley. Who knows?”

I think Chisora underestimates the endless supply of 3rd tier fodder that Hearn can put in the ring with Whyte until he gets his now guaranteed title shot against WBC champion Deontay Wilder. If the idea by Hearn is to make sure his vulnerable fighter Whyte doesn’t get beaten, which clearly should have last Saturday night against Chisora, then I believe that he’s going to make sure that he fights plenty of non-threatening heavyweights until he gets the title shot.

Just think of it like this; if Whyte somehow gets lucky and beats Deontay, it would give Hearn and his Matchroom Sport company TWO heavyweight champions in the division. Hearn could then either match Whyte and Anthony Joshua up against each other immediately in a big UK heavy bash on Sky Box Office PPV or he could have Whyte milk his WBC title for two or three fights against bottom feeders in the division if the World Boxing Council will allow him to do so.

My guess is Hearn won’t take any chances and will immediately put Whyte in with Joshua for a unification fight. That’s why I think Hearn is going to ignore Chisora’s pleas for a much needed rematch and instead spoon feed Whyte cannon fodder for the next year until he gets his guaranteed title shot against Deontay. If nothing else, Whyte will get a nice little payday for the Deontay fight, even if he loses badly and gets knocked out.

Hearn can always put Whyte in with Luis “King Kong” Ortiz for a nice in house Matchroom Sport fight, but I don’t see Hearn doing that. He’s better off saving both of those guys in order to feed them to Joshua in the future. If he matches them together, one will get beaten and that will wreck any possibilities of them fighting Joshua. Hearn can’t put Whyte back in with Dave Allen or Ian Lewison, because no one wants to see tired rematches involving Whyte fighting guys he already easily beat without controversy.

There’s a shortage of available British heavyweights that Hearn could put in with Whyte. I don’t see David Price agreeing to fight Whyte. Unless Hearn wants to get a fighter from the U.S to come to the UK to fight Whyte, then I see him feeding him fodder opponents one after another until he gets his title shot against Wilder in 2018 or 2019. Hearn might as well put Whyte back in the ring with Chisora. If he can’t beat Chisora, then he doesn’t have much of a future. Hearn might need to look in other countries for guys to put in with Whyte for stay busy fights until he gets his title shot.