With Dillian Whyte back on track for a shot at the world title due to his aggressive and power-packed revenge win over Alexander Povetkin, the new WBC interim heavyweight champ is craving his big chance. However, with the two reigning heavyweight champions, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, likely to take up a substantial amount of each other’s time with their two-fight deal, Whyte will have to play the waiting game; in fact, he will have to continue to play the waiting game. How long is it since Whyte first became WBC mandatory challenger? It was many months and some ups and down ago, that’s for sure. But Whyte both needs to and wants to be kept active, as he has said – “I’m not going to wait around for Fury and Joshua,” Whyte said a while back.
So what better fight, what bigger fight, what more guaranteed explosion of a fight is there for Whyte to take while he waits for his shot at the Fury-Joshua winner than a fight with Deontay Wilder? The big one aside, it’s entirely likely a Whyte-Wilder fight is the most asked for heavyweight match-up today. Fans want it, Whyte wants it, Eddie Hearn wants it. But does Wilder want it? It’s a risky fight for both men, to be sure, but Whyte has shown he is not afraid to take a risk. But again, will Wilder take this risky fight? Indeed, will Wilder even fight again? Everyone is hoping the former WBC heavyweight will fight again, and if he does, there is no hotter fight out there for his return than a duel with Whyte. Who wouldn’t get excited about seeing this fight!
So if we get this guaranteed explosion/slugfest/ending-in-a-violent-KO of a battle, who wins? This is a tough one, primarily because we just don’t know what Wilder’s state of mind is now and what it will be when he does return to the ring (if he actually does return). But if Wilder can get back to being the enormously confident gunslinger he once was, this prior to his one-sided beating at the hands of Fury in their second fight, if Wilder can come back and do what Whyte did last night, and that shows no inclination to be gun-shy or to be lacking in belief when returning from a loss, then we would have a great fight. And one that could go either way.
Whyte, 28-2(19) has shown durability and a real zest for combat. Wilder, despite being thoroughly beaten by Fury in fight-two, has shown he has heart, that he is a man who can suck it up and take his lumps. As a result of Whyte’s warrior tendencies and Wilder’s bravery, we would get far more than just a fight that comes down to whoever lands first wins.
This is how a Wilder-Whyte fight could be decided, yes, but plenty of people feel we would get a real war, a real slugfest, with both guys being rocked and perhaps knocked down before the eventual winner strikes the winning blow. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, a Whyte Vs. Wilder fight would turn out to be almost as breath-taking as the epic George Foreman Vs. Ron Lyle shootout. Or maybe a Wilder-Whyte fight would turn out to be something like the Derrick Jefferson Vs. Maurice Harris rumble. It is the thought that this fight, one that seems entirely possible to make, could be as raw in excitement as those two special fights that makes so many people continue to ask for it. Even though Wilder, 42-1-1(41) has yet to fully commit to fighting again, against anybody.
The feeling here is, if Wilder and Whyte fought five times, there would be a different winner each time, but each time the winner would walk away with a knockout. Some fights simply have magic, maximum violence (to use a Dillian Whyte phrase) and guaranteed action writ large all over them. A Wilder Vs. Whyte fight is one such fight. Let the powers that be see to it that this fight is made. Only the loser will regret it if it does happen.