Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte will be ultra-cautious in his rematch with former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin on March 27th on DAZN at ‘The Rumble’ on the Rock in Gibraltar.
Heavyweight contender Otto Wallin believes Whyte ( 27-2, 18 KOs) avoids suffering a second knockout loss to the 41-year-old Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KOs).
Last August, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist Povetkin smashed Whyte to bits in, knocking him out in the fifth round at Eddie Hearn’s childhood home in Brentwood, Essex.
Wallin believes that Whyte will remake himself for this fight and come out entirely different from the fighter who fought Povetkin the first time in August of last year.
The big Swedish heavyweight Wallin might be assuming too much about Whyte with his ability to change things up.
Whyte fights the same way each time, and it’s unclear whether he can beat Povetkin by boxing him from the outside. That sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Povetkin will be dangerous
“I think it’s worked out good for him with the pushback, to be honest,” said Wallin to iFL TV about Dillian Whyte’s rematch with Povetkin on March 27th.
“To get back in there last December at first, a fight like that would have been too early for him. This probably works out better.
“He’s [Whyte] had more time to recover and train and get fit. I think that, of course, he has a chance [against Povetkin]. He was winning the first fight.
“Povetkin will be dangerous again, but Dillian Whyte will come out and be pretty cautious, I would think because he was knocked out in his last fight,” said Otto.
Povetkin will be very dangerous because he now knows how to beat the 32-year-old Whyte. We’re going to see how disciplined Whyte is, as he’s going to have to fight cautiously if he doesn’t want to get hit by Povetkin’s uppercuts.
It’s logical to assume that Povetkin will be trying to land that same uppercut that he used to knock Whyte cold last August in their first fight at the Matchroom Boxing Fight Camp.
Dillian will try and outbox Povetkin
“I think he’s going to come out there and be cautious and try and outbox him,” said Wallin about Whyte to try and box Povetkin.
“I think he would do that and win a decision. He was in tough with Dillian because he was down a couple of times before that, but then he hit him [Whyte] with a good shot and took him out.
“So I don’t know what goes through his mind, Povetkin. He might think, ‘I was lucky the first time. It’s going to be tough again,’ or he can think, ‘I beat him once, then I can beat him again.’
“Povetkin is getting older, but he’s dangerous; he showed that in the first fight. But like I said, I think Dillian is going to be smart.
“He knows he’s [Povetkin] got good power and knockout power.
“So I think Dillian is going to come out there and be smart and try to outbox him. I think he’s going to try and play it safe,” said Wallin.
Knowing how much of a hot-head Whyte is, he’s not going to be able to resist being drawn into a tear-up once he gets walloped by Povetkin.
Some fighters can stay composed mentally and fight smart when they fight with the game plan of boxing a dangerous opponent.
Whyte isn’t one of those fighters. He has too much pride and way too much ego to give Povetkin the respect he will need to win.
Wallin, not sure where Wilder’s head is at?
“I haven’t heard anything. I’ve heard that he’s linked to [Luis] Ortiz and Charles Martin maybe,” said Wallin about Deontay Wilder’s next fight.
“I think I read that online. Other than that, I’m not sure. I haven’t really heard anything [about what Wilder will be doing next].
“I don’t know what he’s been up to. He lost to Fury. That can happen, everybody loses, and he can bounce back.
“He’s been a good champion. I don’t know what’s going on with him. I saw him post something on Instagram with drinks, liquor, and a gun and stuff. So I don’t know where his head is at,” said Wallin.
That was an odd picture that former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder posted on his Instagram on Monday.
I don’t know the significance of Wilder posing with a pistol sitting in front of him with a glass of wine, a bottle of wine, and a gold watch on the table.
You can read into it and come up with several thoughts, some of them bad about what is going through Wilder’s mind.
Wilder may sit and wait until he gets a world title shot against the Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury fight winner.
For Wilder’s sake, he needs to hope that Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) wins against Fury because that might be his only chance of fighting for a world title.
Fury wants nothing to do with Wilder because of the comments he made to the media after his seventh-round knockout loss last year.