Dillian Whyte believes that Alexander Povetkin pretended that he was sick with COVID 19 to have more time to prepare for their rematch, which is now scheduled for March 27th in Gibraltar.
The two heavyweights have seen their rescheduled several times due to the 41-year-old Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KOs) needing more time to recover from his COVID 19 illness. But they’re finally set to battle it out this month on DAZN in front of fans in Gibraltar.
Still, Whyte (27-2, 18 KOs) harbors suspicions that the former WBA heavyweight champion Povetkin was making up his illness so that he can use the time to get in the best shape possible.
It’s unclear why it bothers the 32-year-old Whyte so much that Povetkin would want more time to trade.
Even if Whyte’s baseless theory on Povekin faking his illness were true, it ultimately helps him to have more time because he’s coming off a vicious 5th round knockout loss against him last August at the Matchroom Fight Camp.
Trailing after four rounds, Povetkin landed a textbook left uppercut that knocked Dillian out in the fifth round. It was the type of shot that Whyte had no chance of recovering from.
Whyte didn’t look that bad off when he did eventually make it to his feet, but it would have ended badly if the referee hadn’t pulled the plug on the fight right away.
“He never had COVID,” Whyte said to The Sun about Povetkin. “He just wanted more time to train or prepare.
“You don’t recover from coronavirus overnight like that, it was some sort of miracle recovery. I am used to all the games and tricks.”
It sounds like Whyte is under the impression that he would have stood to gain if the rematch with Povetkin had taken place last November instead of on March 27th.
Dillian must believe that Povetkin would have been easy pickings for him at that time, but the one that would have been worse off is Whyte.
If they had fought in November, Whyte would have had only three months to recover from being knocked unconscious by Povetkin on August 22.
A fight of that nature likely wouldn’t be allowed in the United States because a state Commission would want the knocked fighter to have more time to recover.
If Whyte gets knocked out again by Povetkin on March 27th, you can expect him to grumble and use his wacky-sounding theory about the Russian fighter faking his illness as his excuse for losing.
Hopefully, Whyte takes the high road and doesn’t start pointing fingers to explain why he lost. I mean, it was bad enough last time he lost to Povetkin with him saying he made a simple mistake.
Whyte’s explanation about why he’d lost basically gave Povetkin no credit for having put together a great game plan after he and his training team had studied his past fights.
“For someone that has had COVID, he has looked in photos better than I have ever seen him look before,” said Whyte about Povetkin.
“I’m not sure someone coming off their sickbed would look that good. Thankfully the fight is now on; there are no more delays.”
Many boxing fans believe that Whyte will right the wrongs from the first fight with Povetkin and go on to defeat him on March 27th.
Whyte was winning the fight through the first four rounds and looked like he was on the cusp of knocking out Povetkin heading into the fifth. Was it, as Whyte says, a case of him getting careless against Povetkin, or would he have lost anyway?
The Whyte vs. Povetkin 2 rematch winner will eventually get a title shot against whoever holds the WBC heavyweight title, be it Tyson Fury or Anthony Joshua. At this point, we’re not even sure if those two will be fighting in 2021.