WBC interim heavyweight champion Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte is counting on the World Boxing Council to “FORCE” champion Tyson Fury to defend against him next.
Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) is mandatory for WBC champion Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs), who may choose to bypass him and go straight to the winner of the March rematch between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk.
Dillian and his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing wants the WBC to force Fury to defend against him, as he should, given the recent statement from the sanctioning body.
Before he can start pushing for a fight with Fury, Whyte, 33, still needs to beat Otto Wallin on October 30th at the Wembley Arena in London, England.
Wallin (22-1, 14 KOs) is no piece of cake, and he’ll be going into the fight with the idea of beating Whyte to take his WBC interim title and mandatory position to challenge Fury in 2022.
Will Fury ask the WBC to make him Franchise champion?
Lost in all of this is the genuine possibility that Fury or his promoters at Top Rank may petition the WBC to elevate him to Franchise champion so that he’s not burdened with a mandatory defense against Whyte.
It’s not that Top Rank doesn’t believe Fury can beat Whyte. They likely think he can, but there’s so much money on the line for Fury to face Joshua next year that it’s not worth it for Top Rank to take the risk of losing that money fight with Tyson losing to Whyte.
“Hopefully, now the WBC forces my position and Fury has no choice,” said Dillian Whyte to Sky Sports News. “It’s a massive British fight, a major fight for Britain.”
The WBC will likely try and force Fury to defend against Whyte, but that might not be effective if he asked to be elevated to Franchise champion.
If Fury makes that move, his regular WBC title will be vacated, and Whyte would become an ’email champion’ outside of the ring if he successfully defeats Wallin.
Being elevated to the new WBC heavyweight champion would leave Whyte neutered, another useless paper champion that wouldn’t be given the same respect as normal belt-holders that have won their titles inside the ring.
Fury would have nothing to gain and everything to lose by making a defense of his WBC title against Whyte. In the U.S, casual boxing fans have no idea who Whyte is, and they won’t be excited at the thought of Fury defending against him.
As far as the UK goes, Whyte isn’t hugely popular either, thanks to him losing to Joshua and Alexander Povetkin in the past.
Whyte has also slowed down his chances to fight for the WBC title by choosing not to fight in WBC title eliminators against Luis Ortiz after being ordered by the sanctioning body several years ago.
It wasn’t until the WBC ordered Whyte to fight Oscar Rivas in 2019 that he finally participated in a title eliminator.
“Fury is an unpredictable man who might say: ‘I am done!’ I hope we can make a fight when I get past Wallin,” said Whyte. “But Fury is a difficult guy to plan. I haven’t heard a word from him about making a fight.”
Fury won’t retire until after he faces the Joshua vs. Usyk 2 rematch winner, and even then, he may not. I doubt that he will want to waste time fighting Whyte when he can make more money fighting both Joshua and Usyk.
Those are big money fights for Fury. If he can beat both of those fighters, there would be interest from fans in seeing Fury fight Deontay Wilder in a fourth contest if he’s still around by then.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t looking at them,” Whyte said. “I am definitely looking at fighting Fury.
“Wallin is a dangerous operator. I am looking to fight Fury next if everything goes according to plan,” said Whyte.
Dillian needs to focus on the Wallin fight on October 30th because if he loses that contest, his career will evaporate overnight.