Dillian Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn reports that his fighter will be taking on interim WBC heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin in a rematch on March 6th.
If ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte (27-2, 18 KOs) is victorious, Hearn hopes to put together a fight between him and Deontay Wilder.
Hearn is getting way ahead of himself, though; Whyte may end up getting knocked out again by Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KOs).
It didn’t go well for the 32-year-old Whyte last August when he was knocked unconscious in the fifth round by the 41-year-old Povetkin at the Matchroom Fight Camp in Essex, UK.
Whyte came into the fight as a big favorite, and he looked like he was on his way to victory when Povetkin landed a peach of a left uppercut in round five that ended the night.
The fight will likely be on Sky Box Office once again in the UK and DAZN in the U.S.
From Povetkin’s perspective, he shouldn’t be giving Whyte a rematch. Povetkin won the interim WBC title from Whyte, and he’s now the mandatory challenger to World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Povetkin shouldn’t have to risk that by running it back against a fighter that he knocked out clinically.
There’s no controversy about the results of the Povetkin vs. Whyte fight last August. Povetkin won by a fifth-round knockout. Yeah, we heard Whyte blaming the loss on him making a silly mistake, but he’d been doing the same thing throughout the contest.
It’s easy to second-guess the wisdom of Whyte taking on Povetkin in a rematch, given how badly he was knocked out last time they fought. But Dillian will have had seven months for his brain to recover from the knockout by the time he faces Povetkin on Marc 6th.
That’s still not a lot of time, but it’s a lot better than the originally scheduled rematch in December. That fight was postponed after Povetkin tested positive for COVID 19. He’s since recovered from the illness, but we don’t know the state of Povetkin’s lungs.
Povetkin might be worse off than Dillian with him coming off a knockout. If the fight goes beyond the fifth round, you have to give Whyte the edge. Coming back that quickly from any flu is tough, but for COVID 19, it’s got to be really tough.
Hearn and Whyte are in a good position to avenge the loss to Povetkin, but you never know. Whyte may still be reeling from that knockout he suffered, and Povetkin has one of the best uppercuts in boxing.
If he can continually catch Whyte with the same shot in the rematch, it’s only a matter of time before he knocks his block off.
The fun part about the Povetkin-Whyte rematch is what will be said afterward if Whyte gets knocked cold for a second time.
Will Hearn get on his soapbox and start talking about a third fight between them, or he let Povetkin move on and challenge the winner of the fights between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury?
