DILLIAN Whyte would be forgiven for taking his eye off the ball and succumbing to a shock defeat against Oscar Rivas next Saturday (July 20) in London.
With Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder seemingly taking turns to goad and distract him, it should certainly come as no surprise if Whyte looks beyond his immediate challenger and comes a cropper as a result.
The latest heavyweight to poke Whyte is Wilder, the WBC heavyweight champion, who today accused Whyte of squirming his way out of previous opportunities to fight him.
โItโs just sad, a grown man be lurking, hiding in the bushes of another man,โ Wilder, 41-0-1 (40), told 78SPORTSTV.
โThatโs all he does: peeps his head out of the bushes to see what Iโm doing. Heโs talking about wanting to fight me, but he doesnโt want to fight me. I know who wants to fight and who donโt.
โHeโs trying to act like heโs hard โ his upbringing, heโs Jamaican โ but I know realness. He ainโt the part. He donโt move me.
โI appreciate him for the publicity, keeping my name alive, but heโs had multiple opportunities to fight me and didnโt take neither of the opportunities he had placed before him.โ
If the fight was to ever happen, Whyteโs wild style would leave him open to being knocked out by a man whose modus operandi is to leave heavyweight contenders sprawled on the floor. Thatโs the view of Wilder at least.
โDillian Whyte is one of the easiest styles,โ he said. โIf people say Iโm wild, heโs definitely wild, and if anyone comes in and tries to wild with me, they ainโt gonna last long. Heโs going to get knocked out real early.
โI said, โIf you beat (Luis) Ortiz, youโve got me.โ Then the WBC came around and mandated it. They ordered him to do it and what did he do? He declined. He didnโt want to do it. Whyte doesnโt want to fight. Heโs just one of those guys who wants to talk, talk, talk.โ
Itโs Wilder who now has to worry about beating Ortiz โ again โ just as Whyte would be well-advised to worry about beating Colombian Rivas next week. In a division jonseing for its next big upset, both need to focus on not going the way of Anthony Joshua, their mutual friend.
Former featherweight champion Billy Dib says it would take a significant amount of money for him to be persuaded to step into the ring and fight Manny Pacquiao but has no such demands when it comes to fighting Amir Khan this Friday (July 12).
In fact, according to Dib, it is Khan who is boxing only for the money at this stage, a result of what the Australian believes is a gradual decline in skills and ambition.
โThis is a one-off fight at welterweight for me and Amir Khan is absolutely the right guy for me to fight,โ said Dib, a veteran of 52 fights across a 15-year career.
โPut it this way, youโd have to offer me a ridiculous amount, well into eight figures, to step into a ring with Manny Pacquiao. Your health is everything. But Amir Khan certainly isnโt Manny Pacquiao.
โLook, Amir definitely was a great champion, a proven warrior whoโs made his mark on the game.
โHe could be a future Hall of Famer. In time, I hope the boxing world will fully appreciate his skillset. But in the past few years thereโs been a major decline and a lot of chinks have emerged. Heโs no longer the fighter who schooled the likes of Devon Alexander and Marcos Maidana.
โToday, heโs fighting for different reasons โ money!โ
A lot has been said about Khanโs decision to fight in Saudi Arabia against a man who once operated as a nine-stone featherweight and rightly so. (The fight, on paper at least, has been described as โludicrousโ by one of Dibโs own cornermen.) Yet Dib, the one who has to make the weight discrepancy count for little, suggests not having to cut weight could be beneficial for him.
โFor the first time in my boxing career, Iโve not needed to worry about my weight,โ he said. โIโll be far stronger, more thickset and hopefully Iโll carry my speed up because Iโm quick, too.
โEverybody knows Iโm a quality body puncher and Iโll be bringing even more strength and power. Iโll definitely test Khan. I really fancy my chances.
โBut I know that if I donโt bring my absolute A-game, Iโll get exposed. I expect it to be a stylish fight rather than a war. Amirโs the naturally bigger man so Iโll need to box out of my skin.โ
Dib, though once a decent featherweight, hardly sounds convinced, nor all that convincing. Then again, why should we expect him to be? This fight, rather than about Billy Dib and his chances, was only ever supposed to be about Amir Khan, Saudi Arabia, and the prospect of the Middle East one day hosting a money-spinning showdown between Khan and Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino legend Dib wouldnโt fight for all the money in the world.