Eddie Hearn wants to add WBC interim heavyweight champion Dillian Whyte, to Canelo Alvarez’s undercard on September 18th on DAZN on FOX Sports PPV. Canelo is nearing a deal to face Caleb Plant on that date in the headliner.
Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) will likely be the co-feature bout on the card, facing possibly Jermaine Franklin of Chris Arreola. Given that this FOX Sports pay-per-view, Whyte would need to be matched against a recognizable name like Arreola.
Putting Dillian in with the 27-year-old Detroit, Michigan native Franklin (20-0, 13 KOs) would be a double negative as far as the casual boxing fans in the U.S go.
Many fans have never heard of the 32-year-old Whyte, and, of course, they’ve never seen Franklin fight before. Even many U.S hardcore fans have seen him fight before.
To add value to the Canelo vs. Plant card, Whyte needs to fight a top 10 contender like one of the following:
- Michael Hunter
- Filip Hrgovic
- Luis Ortiz
- Andy Ruiz Jr
- Tony Yoka
- Charles Martin
- Frank Sanchez
- Joseph Parker
- Hughie Fury
Most of those guys will never be considered by Hearn because they’re too dangerous. Hearn promotes Hughie Fury, so you can’t rule him out as a possible opponent for Dillian to fight.
Unfortunately, casual boxing fans have never see Hughie fight in the U.S. Hearn would be assuming that the fans would be interested in the Whyte-Hughie fight based on Hughie’s last name.
Dillian is popular in the UK, and all of his fights are shown on Sky Box Office PPV despite him never having won a world title. I take that back. Whyte has got the WBC interim belt, but that’s not a true title.
That’s a placeholder title that lets boxing fans know that whoever had that title will eventually get a crack at a world title as long as they don’t lose to someone.
For that reason, likely, Hearn won’t take any chances with Whyte by matching him against a decent heavyweight that can punch.
Hearn already made that mistake by letting Whyte face Alexander Povetkin last year in what was supposed to be a stay busy fight, and he would get knocked out by the Russian fighter.
Whyte avenged his loss to Povetkin in his last fight, stopping him in the fourth round last March on Gibraltar. As long as Whyte continues winning, he’ll likely get a title shot next year against whoever holds the WBC belt.
On Tuesday, Hearn said that the World Boxing Council needs to stip Fury due to inactivity and give him the WBC ‘Champion in Recess’ tag. Hearn wants Whyte to be elevated to WBC champion. Fury could later fight Dillian for his old title.