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Dillian Whyte’s history with the WBC is long, tiresome, and more complicated (in a stupid way) than either side will really let on, but long story short, Whyte has been waiting a long time for a shot at their heavyweight title, and the WBC has promised it will come by early 2021.
That said, the current pandemic situation in the world has everything up in the air for at least the rest of 2020, and with WBC titleholder Tyson Fury owing Deontay Wilder a contractually obligated third fight, Whyte could get pushed back even further into 2021 or, well, who knows, really?
Fury and Wilder were originally supposed to meet again in July, but that got pushed back to Oct. 3, and that’s just a planned target, nothing official. With it seeming more and more unlikely that we’re going to be able to have large-scale events with fans in attendance and all that by that date, the fight is further in question. We may have regular boxing by then, but it won’t be on the Fury-Wilder 3 level.
There’s also the issue of Deontay Wilder recently saying he’d had biceps surgery following his loss to Fury in February. The 32-year-old Whyte (27-1, 18 KO) has taken that information and is pushing for a shot ahead of “schedule.”
“Let’s just have the fight,” Whyte told Sky Sports. “Like he said to Deontay Wilder, ‘It’s only a fight, you win some, you lose some.’ It’s just a fight. Why wouldn’t he want to fight me instead of waiting for an injured Wilder to recover, as he may not even be ready by October due to the severity of his injury.”
Whyte doesn’t necessarily expect this to happen, mind you, but he’s at least putting it out there.
This also ignores that Whyte is currently signed to face Alexander Povetkin (35-2-1, 24 KO) on July 4, and that’s far from a gimme victory; the 40-year-old Russian remains a legitimate contender at heavyweight and would perhaps be the best win of Whyte’s career to date. That fight may or may not happen — it was pushed back from May 2 already — but it’s not one to look past given it’s still on the schedule.