Dillian Whyte wants mandatory slot if Wilder fights Breazeale

Dillian Whyte is in quite a spot right now, as the 30-year-old heavyweight contender had been ordered by the WBC to face Dominic Breazeale for an interim heavyweight title, which would then in theory have led to a shot at the winner of the Deontay Wilder vs Tyson Fury rematch.

But, well, it’s boxing, and things fall apart all the time for various reasons. Tyson Fury, after signing with Top Rank, isn’t going to rematch Deontay Wilder after all, which throws everything else for a loop.

Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KO) has said that he’s going to fight Breazeale next. Breazeale (20-1, 18 KO) has said recently that he’s still open to fighting Whyte, but that he prefers to face Wilder, since it’s a world title shot.

At the moment, the WBC order is still that Whyte (25-1, 18 KO) and Breazeale square off. But just because they haven’t publicly announced anything doesn’t mean that hasn’t changed already — Wilder is technically the WBC mandatory challenger already, while Whyte is their “silver” titleholder. And with no contract between the two signed, the sanctioning body could easily change their minds, officially, about the Whyte-Breazeale order, because Wilder just doesn’t have that many options for a desired May 18 return, and Breazeale is another Al Haymon fighter, making it seemingly easy to put together in short order.

But if that does happen, which seems to be expected at the moment, Whyte is asking the WBC to then install him as the new mandatory challenger:

“The WBC, they ordered me against Breazeale. Hopefully they will honor that and keep true to their word, and they will give me the mandatory position. If Wilder wants to fight Breazeale, I should become the WBC automatic mandatory, because Dominic Breazeale is pulling out of the fight, not me.”

Whyte recently turned down a chance to rematch WBA/IBF/WBO titleholder Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KO) on April 13 at Wembley Stadium. He tells Sky Sports that he doesn’t regret that move at all, even though Joshua has now moved on to a June 1 date in New York with Jarrell Miller, and Whyte is potentially sitting for the moment with no opponent for his next fight.

Whyte has shown that he’s also not content to merely sit and wait. He fought three times in 2018, beating Lucas Browne, Joseph Parker, and Dereck Chisora. He fought Chisora in December even when there was heavy talk of him being next in line to face Joshua, saying he wanted to stay sharp. He took the risk then, and even if Wilder-Breazeale happens and Whyte were then installed as the mandatory as he wishes, it seems likely he’d take a fight in the meantime, anyway.