If Dillian Whyte gets what he wants, he could be fighting a rematch with Alexander Povetkin as soon as November. Speaking with Sky Sports, Whyte first congratulated Povetkin on a great fight before saying he is “good” and that he wants the rematch in either November or December.
Meanwhile, promoter Eddie Hearn, speaking with Boxing Social, also spoke about the strong possibility of the rematch taking place in November.
Hearn said it is essential to get Povetkin-Whyte II done before the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder III fight. But three months is not much time at all for a fighter to be able to come back from as devastating a KO as the one Whyte suffered on Saturday night.
It would be some quick turnaround by Whyte if he did fight again in November. Hearn said that this would mean two or three weeks of rest for Whyte, before his return to the gym in September time.
Whyte has to be commended for wanting to get back in there with the ultra-dangerous Povetkin, but would it perhaps be wiser to either wait a little longer or maybe even box an interim fight? If Whyte were to suffer a second savage KO defeat to the Russian star, well, what then? On the other hand, if Whyte were to wait, what if Povetkin took another fight and got beaten?
Anthony Joshua went right back in with Andy Ruiz after he was shocked and stopped last June, but the return fight did not take place for six months, which is a lot more time for a knocked-out fighter to recover both mentally and physically.
Half that time and the beaten fighter is returning at a veritable breakneck pace. And although Povetkin is contracted to fight Whyte a second time, will the 40-year-old (41 next month) be accommodating to a return taking place as soon as November?
For the fans, the sooner, the better. It was a great fight on Saturday, and there is no reason to think the return meeting will be anything other than another tough and exciting match.
But Dillian Whyte really will be putting his entire career on the line. Should he put the brakes on a little and fight the big fight later than November, even later than December?
By the way, Hearn, without giving away the exact early number, says Saturday’s fight did very, very well at the Box-Office. Might the Povetkin-Whyte fight have topped 300,000 P-P-V buys? Fight-Two can be expected to pull in even more fans.
