Tonight in Gibraltar, former world heavyweight title challenger Dillian Whyte scored a 7th-round corner retirement win over Ebenezer Tetteh. The end came when Tetteh, who had taken everything Whyte had to throw and did not go down or out, was exhausted and was pulled out after the 7th round. 36-year-old Whyte is now 31-3(21). Tetteh of Ghana, the same age at 36, is now 23-2(20).
Now for the bad news—the truthful but hurtful news—Dillian Whyte is close to being a shot fighter. Tonight’s fight should have been and was seen as being, an easy one—or two-round fight for Whyte. Instead, possible rust aside as an excuse, Whyte had to dig deep as he slugged it out with an ever-so-game but, at the same time, ever-so-limited foe.
It all made for a great fight. Great? Well, it was super entertaining stuff tonight as the two somewhat out-of-shape (at least this is how it looked) heavyweights banged away. Whyte had the better fundamentals, as was to be expected, but Tetteh was the man on the front foot. And Whyte, his best shots bouncing off Tetteh, was being made to work way harder than should have been the case.
Tetteh even managed to land some hard head shots of his own at times, with the punches leaving Whyte gasping. It was, to coin a phrase, a sloppy, slow-motion slugfest. And the action went on and on. Going in, we thought this one would be over with in a round or two, with Whyte being back on track for a bigger fight. Instead, tonight’s fight went rounds. It was fun to watch and at times, the hopeful shots Tetteh was slinging made a fan wonder if he just might score the upset.
Whyte fell over at one point, the momentum of his own punches seeing him touch down. Tetteh, his face swollen, was still smiling. Then, with nothing left to offer, after he had already given us far more than anyone had predicted, Tetteh was pulled out by his corner.
Whyte won, but he looked like a fighter who was borderline shot tonight. However, he moves on, and due to his name and reputation, he will eventually get another big fight.
Tonight, massive underdog Ebenezer Tetteh, a man who refused to merely make the numbers up, deserves a bonus for the gutsy effort he gave. To repeat, tonight’s heavyweight slugfest was fun; way more fun than Dillian Whyte would have liked it to have been.
