Eddie Hearn says heavyweight Dillian Whyte should be confirmed in the next 1 to 2 days to be added to the December 7th card in Saudi Arabia. WHyte (26-1, 18 KOs) will be fighting on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. 2.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn is looking for Whyte’s opponent for the December 7th card. As you would guess, it’s not easy to fight a good fighter willing to face Whyte on 2 weeks’ notice.
At the same time, Whyte wouldn’t agree to fight a dangerous heavyweight with that little preparation either.So whoever Hearn finds will essentially be the sacrificial lamb for Whyte to slaughter on the Joshua-Ruiz 2 card.
It won’t be sporting, but at least Whyte will be able to fight on this high visibility card. From Hearn’s perspective, it helps his bottom line to have Whyte on the card, because it’ll mean more Sky Box Office buys from boxing fans eager to see him.
“It’s a Very strong possibility,” Hearn said to Sky Sports News about Whyte being added to the December 7th card. “We are looking at opponents and trying to get it all confirmed.
“Hopefully in the next 24-48 hours, we can have some more news on whether Whyte will join AJ and Alexander Povetkin vs Michael Hunter and Filip Hrgovic vs Eric Molina on a big heavyweight night in Saudi Arabia.”
It’s not going to sit right with a lot of boxing fans seeing Whyte fight on the Joshua-Ruiz 2 card, because of his adverse finding from a UK Anti-Doping test. Whyte maintains that he beat Oscar Rivas “fair and square” last July.
Despite Whyte’s assertion of innocence, the WBC has suspended him as the mandatory challenger to WBC heavyweight champion until UKAD clears him. When or if that happens, Whyte will be able to challenge for the WBC title as the mandatory in 2021.
Whether Whyte will sit and wait until is unknown. He’s not suspended with UKAD, so he can fight. The agency has not exactly been the quickest when it comes to revealing the results of Whyte’s B-sample.
“The UKAD situation is frustrating, we’re still waiting for them to issue a statement,” Hearn said to skysports.com.
Hearn really wants Whyte to challenge WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder for some reason. He had the chance to make a fight between Whyte and Joshua when he held the IBF/WBA/WBO titles, but he failed to. It looks like Hearn wants to keep Whyte and Joshua apart in order to have two separate revenue streams. If Whyte and Joshua fight each other again, it’ll hurt one of Hearn’s revenue streams when one of them lose.