HEAVYWEIGHT contender Dillian Whyte isn’t exactly backward in coming forward when passing comment on his heavyweight rivals.
The WBC silver champion, who is set to rematch Dereck Chisora on December 22 in London, has an interest in next weekend’s WBC world heavyweight title fight between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury and would, he says, quite like to see his fellow Brit do a number on the heavy-handed American. (That’s the polite way of saying it.)
“I hope Tyson Fury smashes Deontay Wilder’s face in because Deontay Wilder’s a coward,” Whyte told iFL TV.
“Tyson Fury – me and him have had our ups and downs, but he’s not a coward at least. I give credit where it’s due. He’s not a coward. He’s stepped up after fighting two pumpkins (Sefer Seferi and Francesco Pianeta) and has fought Deontay Wilder.
“Deontay Wilder fought one mandatory in three years. Deontay Wilder’s a punk.
“Hopefully Fury beats him. Fury’s British so I’m going to back him.”
Backing Fury to win next Saturday is different to tipping him to win. Whyte knows this, too, and accepts it’s easier to see how Wilder wins the fight than Fury.
“It’s one of those fights where smart money says Wilder, and heart and courage says Tyson Fury because he’s a bit of a weirdo,” he added.
“You might him write him off and he comes and boxes out of his skin. So, you never know. Weirdos do weird things.”
For Tyson Fury, being labelled a weirdo, by a fellow British heavyweight no less, has never felt so good.
Meanwhile, WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, recently seen sunning himself in the Caribbean, is apparently more interested in his own path than the antics of Wilder and Fury in Los Angeles next weekend.
Though it makes a lot of sense for him to be ringside at the Staples Center when his two main rivals fight, Joshua has already revealed a sponsorship obligation that night will scupper any chance of this happening. Moreover, taking to social media this week, he wrote: “Unified the heavyweight division twice in 22 fights. Watch me become undisputed heavyweight champion in 2019.”
Sounds to us like he’s being the bigger man and refusing to rise to the bait of shoutier heavyweights.
It’s a stance Joshua has every right to take. After all, he owns three of the four recognised heavyweight titles and generates an obscene amount of money every time he fights – regardless of the opponent.
Yet, equally, it’s this sort of laid-back approach that has seemingly allowed Wilder and Fury, that dastardly duo, to sneak in around the back and steal a march on him as 2018 comes to a close. In that respect, Brand AJ might need to be careful.
And finally… some slightly disturbing news coming out of America this afternoon: According to Keith Idec of Boxing Scene, the brilliant world welterweight champion Terence Crawford feels it would be a good idea to defend his WBO title against faded ex-champion Luis Collazo on March 23 in New York.
Only he’s wrong. Really wrong. In fact, ‘Bud’, it’s a bad idea. A really bad one.
Why? Well, Collazo, now 37, was once an awkward and talented southpaw who won a WBA welterweight title and gave Ricky Hatton all he could handle. This much is true. But that was back in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Since then, the New Yorker, 38-7 (20), has lost to Shane Mosley, Andre Berto, Freddy Hernandez, Amir Khan and, most recently, Keith Thurman.
In terms of recent form, he returned from an 18-month hiatus in 2017 to stop Sammy Vasquez, and then this year outpointed Bryant Perrella over 10 rounds. But, seriously, when Crawford, 34-0 (25), is arguably better than every one of the seven men who have already defeated Collazo, what’s the point?
