Dillian Whyte (26-1, 18 KOs) survived a knockdown scare in the ninth to cruise to a 12 round unanimous decision victory against Oscar Rivas (26-1, 18 KOs) in a fight for the interim World Boxing Council heavyweight title n Saturday night on DAZN and Sky Box Office at The O2 Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Whyte jabbed Rivas all night, and puffed up his right eye. Rivas knocked Whyte down with an uppercut in the ninth, and had him badly hurt in the 12th. The referee Victor Loughlin stepped in several times to pull Rivas off of Whyte, and warn the Colombian for a low blows, and coming in with the head. The constant interruptions by Loughlin might have saved Whyte from being knocked out. Whyte looked discombobulated from a right hand that Rivas hit him with. The interruptions from the referee left some boxing fans wondering who would have won the fight if not for Rivas being impeded from finishing Whyte.
The scores were 115-112, 115-112 and 116-111. It looked like Whyte barely nicked it. It wasn’t the great performance by Whyte in recent years. He missed a lot of his punches, and he was backed up all night. The only thing that set Whyte apart from the shorter 6’0″ Rivas was his jab. Without his jab, Whyte would have likely lost the fight. The timely breaks by the referee in the 12th had a hand in Whyte’s win as well. He might not have survived the round if not for the referee getting in between him and Rivas in the final round.
Whyte is now the mandatory for WBC champion Wilder. Dillian would have already been the mandatory if he’d agreed to fight Luis Ortiz last year when the WBC ordered the fight. Whyte had other ideas of who he wanted to fight, and instead fought Dereck Chisora.
David Price defeats David Allen
Former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price (25-6, 20 KOs) outclassed domestic level fighter Dave Allen (17-5-2, 14 KOs) in stopping him at the end of the 10th round. Allen was taking a beating, and wasn’t competitive at all. His trainer Darren Barker made the decision to have the fight stopped in between the 10th and 11th rounds. The 6’8″ Price was hitting Allen consistently with jabs, right hands and left hooks throughout the contest. In rounds eight through ten, Price landed powerful uppercuts that took the fight out of Allen entirely.
Dereck Chisora destroys Artur Szpilka
Heavyweight Dereck Chisora (31-9, 21 KOs) destroyed former world title challenger Artur Szpilka (22-4, 15 KOs) in stopping him in round two. Chisora dropped Szpilka with a right to the head after hurting him moments earlier with a right. Szpilka was out on his feet for the last five shots that Chisora hit him with. Chisora’s promoter Eddie Hearn said after the fight that he’s going to match him against Joseph Parker next.
Other results on the card
Richard Riakporhe W SD10 Chris Billam-Smith
Lawrence Okolie W TKO 7 Mariano Angel Gudino
Dan Azeez W TKO 6 Charlie Duffield
