Dillian Whyte is already watching fight tapes, looking ahead to his next fight. Speaking with IFL TV yesterday, just hours after his crucial revenge KO win over Alexander Povetkin, the 32-year-old WBC interim heavyweight champ says there are lots of good fights out there for him. The one fight that keeps getting mentioned as a real possibility is that big one with former WBC ruler Deontay Wilder (though Whyte has said a number of times that he is not at all certain Wilder will even fight again). But if that fight doesn’t happen, and if, as expected, the massive unification fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua does take place this year (as we all hope it will), Whyte has another fight in mind.
Whyte again said yesterday that he would very much be interested in a fight with Trevor Bryan. Whyte told IFL TV that, ” If the unification fight happens, Trevor Bryan is a good fight for me. He just won the WBA regular title, so let’s dust that one off for July.” As a stay-busy fight, this one does make sense for Whyte. However, the unbeaten (but largely untested, his best wins coming against a former cruiserweight in BJ Flores and a faded former heavyweight titlist in Bermane Stiverne) Bryan will not look at the fight as a stay-busy bout for Whyte; he will no doubt fully believe he can beat Whyte. At the very least, this fight, if it did happen, would let us know how good Bryan actually is. Maybe he is the real deal, maybe he isn’t.
Whyte says he has asked Eddie Hearn about a Bryan fight, although he smiled in stating how “Eddie will put me in another hard fight,” instead. Hearn wants that Whyte-Wilder fight, certain as he is that it would be “colossal.” But if Wilder doesn’t come back, or if he does return to the ring but has no inclination to fight Whyte (and as a return fight, after some year-plus out of the ring, this one would be RISKY for Wilder), then maybe Bryan would be the perfect fight for Whyte. Bryan, like everyone else in the heavyweight division, is calling for a big fight with either Fury or Joshua, but it seems he is extremely unlikely to get a shot at either guy. However, a win over Whyte, 28-2(19) would get Bryan one huge step closer to that kind of big, big fight. Bryan, 21-0(15) has been extremely inactive, having had just two fights since December of 2017, and it is to be hoped he embarks on a far more active schedule over the coming months.
At age 31, Bryan has a good amount of time on his side but he does need to make his move quite soon all the same. Maybe a fight with Whyte will happen for him. It’s not a massive fight, and most if not all fans would fully predict a Whyte win. But again, as a stay-busy affair, why not? And if some people see this possible fight as nothing but an easy night’s work for Whyte, well, doesn’t Dillian deserve an easy night’s work after all the tough fights he’s been through – Joseph Parker, Dereck Chisora, Oscar Rivas, Mariusz Wach (in a rust-remover) and Povetkin twice for Whyte’s last six fights!
Whyte wants to stay busy, and he would also like a fight in America this summer. If Fury, Joshua and Wilder are unavailable, and unless a guy like Andy Ruiz (who first has to come through okay against an apparently slimmed down and in shape Chris Arreola in May) calls for a fight with Whyte, then just maybe Trevor Bryan could be the right guy in the right place at the right time.
