Eddie Hearn was amused at learning that Deontay Wilder had included Dillian Whyte as one of the five opponents he’s considering for returning to the ring in January or February.
Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) is still hoping that the arbitration resolution will go in his favor, and he’ll get his trilogy match against Tyson Fury in early 2021. But if not, Wilder has got a five-person list that he’s assembled, and the recently knocked out Matchroom fighter Whyte (27-2, 18 KOs) is among the list.
Wilder wants to fight Whyte, 32, because of the hounding he did when he was ranked #1 with the World Boxing Council. Whyte seemed to get things mixed up in his head, believing that being ranked #1 with the WBC was the same thing as being the mandatory challenger.
“That’s convenient of him, Dillian’s only wanted to box him for ten years. Whyte has got the fight of his life vs Povetkin first,” Hearn said to IFL TV. “You know what’s weird? I saw that list, he didn’t mention AJ, did he?”
Wilder would have fought Whyte if Hearn didn’t seem so urgent for him to take that fight. Deontay saw it as a situation where Hearn was using Whyte as the protector/guard for Matchroom’s golden goose Anthony Joshua. So naturally, Wilder wasn’t keen on fighting the Whyte for a smaller payday rather than Joshua.
When the WBC attempted to have Whyte fight in a WBC eliminator against Luis Ortiz, he balked and went in the other direction to face the arguably weaker target of Dereck Chisora. Anyway, this is all water on the bridge now.
Whyte finally became the WBC mandatory in 2019 but then lost to Alexander Povetkin last August by a fifth-round knockout and is no longer the mandatory. Hearn is hoping that if Whyte beats Povetkin in their rematch on January 30th, he’ll get an immediate title shot against WBC champion Tyson Fury, which obviously has no chance of happening.
“I want Dillian Whyte, I want Dillian Whyte and I want Dillian Whyte,” said Wilder.”The dude’s obsessed with me. He acts like we had a bad breakup and he can’t get over me. I’m the man that he wanna be.”
Whyte would seem to be the worst of the lot that Wilder is looking to face, and it’ll be pointless for him to face him if Dillian loses his January 30th rematch with Alexander Povetkin.
Wilder will be doing Hearn a big favor if he faces Whyte is he loses to Povetkin in January. I mean, if Whyte beats Povetkin, he won’t want any part of Wilder because he’ll be restored as the WBC mandatory once again. I think it’s safe to say that Dillian will have learned his lesson about taking risky fights while holding the WBC mandatory spot.
