Dillian Whyte Flags a Possible Next Opponent and Signals WBC Title Ambitions

Dillian Whyte Flags a Possible Next Opponent and Signals WBC Title Ambitions
By: G.E. Simons

Dillian Whyte has confirmed his interest in facing former WBC world champion Bermane Stiverne, in what could provide a final eliminator for the right to challenge current WBC heavyweight title holder Deontay Wilder.

Whyte’s options became more interestingfollowinghis wafer thin victory over Dereck Chisora in their chief supporting clash on the Joshua/Molinacard in Manchester, England on 10th December.

Theirs was always going to be the fight most likely to ignite the Warehouse City night, before Anthony Joshua offered Eric Molina the opportunity to take a look at his IBF belt and enjoy a payday as part of his visit to the once industrial north – and so it was.

The dark vaudeville of the build up saw glasses of SKY Sports water thrown, press conference tables flipped and see-you-outside threats made, that ominously suggested the violence might be taken out of the workplace and into a far more domestic argument.

So it was no surprise that the fight itself played out with a brutal intensity reminiscent of a brawl between cuckolded steelworkers on a gravel car park illuminated by the headlights of parked up big rigs.

It was a great domestic settler, borne of genuine needle between two very similar fighters but at very different stages of their careers. The action confirmed the pugnacity that we know Chisora possesses and rubber-stampedthe toughness of Whytewhich we witnessed in his defeat to Anthony Joshua.

Dereck Chisora is unsurprisingly keen on a rematch because it sure was close, but a replay offersonly the revenues it will generate rather than the athletic challenge or the chess board move it represents for him career wise.

Chisora now finds himself check mated in the ‘bloody good opponent’ category for any rising young prospect and one who, for the next 24 months at least, will provide a searching examination of his opponent’s heart, chin and will to win.

Whyte however has now passed that examination, enjoys a #9 WBC ranking and payday aside, has no conceivable motivation to be re-examined by Del Boy.

Stiverne, the Las Vegas based Haitian, possesses a credible record in contemporary heavyweight terms, consisting of 25 wins with 21 stoppages, a single draw and just two defeats. The last of which being a defiant unanimous decision loss to Wilder in 2015, where the WBC title changed hands.

Since that loss Stiverne rebounded with an unremarkable points victory over professional opponent DerricRossy at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
ADecember 17thdate in Ekaterinburg, Russia with Alexander Povetkin to contest the WBC Interim title was next.

But.

20 hours before the ring walks Povetkin returned positive results for the muscle-building substance obstarine, from tests taken on 6th December.

The WBC withdrew its sanctioning.

Andrey Ryabinsky,Povetkin’s promoter described the positive test as “not clear where it came from.”

Stiverne flew home to Las Vegas, saying “There’s no reason to fight if the WBC won’t sanction the bout.”

Povetkinscored a 6th round knock out of late replacement Johann Duhaupas in a then dubious and pointless work out.

A new sample provided by the Russian to the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) a week after the original tests, returned a negative result

Povetkin has retained his #1 WBC ranking and is back in the mix, but the latest complications offerDillian Whyte the potential for real progression within the World Boxing Council landscape by slipping in to secure a fight with the man-sized, #2 rankedBermaneStiverne.

Elsewhere, the WBC ranks recent Matchroom Boxing acquisition Luis Ortiz at #3 and an active KubratPulev at #4, who also offer potentially interesting match ups for Whyte from within the WBC talent pool.

Whoever the opponent, Whyte appears to have wisely aligned himself with a sanctioning body in the WBC, where just one more fight could open the door to a crack at a title that connects Muhammed Ali to Larry Holmes to Mike Tyson to Lennox Lewis, against a current holder in Deontay Wilder who remains strangely disconnected from the general heavyweight discussion.