By: Hans Themistode
Promoter Bob Arum apparently has no problem kicking a man while he’s down.
Top Rank’s CEO sat back in his palatial estate, kicked his feet up and watched a Saturday night filled with boxing. His promotional company had a headliner of light heavyweight contenders in Joe Smith Jr. and Eleider Alvarez. Premier Boxing Champions also had a slot which featured former welterweight champion Shawn Porter and the unheralded Sebastian Formella.
But before either of those shows came on, heavyweight contenders Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin clashed on the other side of the world in a world title eliminator.
Their contest went according to what most envisioned in the early goings. Whyte floored his man twice in the fourth and seemed to be on his way to a stopped victory. Then, out of nowhere, the dramatic theater of boxing struck as Povetkin knocked Whyte clean out in the fifth round.
There were some that felt bad for Whyte as he occupied WBC’s number one ranking for several years. Arum on the other hand, was not amongst them and piled onto the heavyweight contenders’ misery.
“Dillian Whyte was so busy fighting for his WBC mandatory position that he didn’t see Povetkin’s uppercut, which knocked him cold on his ass,” said Arum on his Twitter account.
Following a 2015 loss to current unified champion Anthony Joshua, Whyte, 32, went on a 11 fight win streak. But even with the victories piling up against former champions and current contenders, Whyte couldn’t sniff a crack at a world title.
Every chance he got, the British native called out the WBC sanctioning body for making him wait. Whether it was a rematch with Joshua or a shot against Tyson Fury, Whyte simply wanted his shot. Now, he’ll be forced to wait even longer as he has stated that he will pursue an immediate rematch with Povetkin.
Should he reverse the outcome the second time around, Whyte could have his long awaited rematch with Joshua. However, there won’t be any titles on the line. At least according to Arum.
At the moment, the long time promoter has his heavyweight in Kubrat Pulev sitting in the mandatory IBF position to face Joshua next. Their matchup is set to take place at the back end of 2020, although there has been multiple delays.
When the green light is given for Pulev and Joshua to step into the ring against one another, Arum is expecting the British empire that is Whyte and Joshua, to continue to crumble.
“Pulev will KO Joshua next,” said Arum. “London Bridges are falling.”