By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn states that he’s ready for a response to his provide to Dillian Whyte over the weekend for a rematch with Anthony Joshua on August twelfth in London.
Hearn expects the negotiations with the 35-year-old prime 10-ranked Whyte (29-3, 19 KOs) to be powerful, however he says Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs) needs this combat.
It seems that Joshua has modified his thoughts about not desirous to combat Whyte as a result of final week, he didn’t appear on this match-up when he posted on Instagram. In hindsight, that transfer by Joshua may have been to make sure that Whyte didn’t ask for an excessive amount of cash throughout negotiations.
This combat has money-grab written throughout it, because it performs to the older boxing followers that was eager on watching Whyte when he was beating fringe contenders like Mariusz Wach, Lucas Browne, Derek Chisora, and Oscar Rivas. The older, dewy-eyed Brits will love Joshua vs. Whyte, however the youthful ones will see it because the dumpster hearth that it’s.
If the combat is made with the 35-year-old Whyte, Joshua, 33, will use it as a warm-up for a December match towards former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia.
Without delay an honest contender, Whyte is now a pale outdated veteran, having arguably misplaced three out of his final 4 fights since 2020. In Whyte’s final combat seven months in the past, he was given a controversial 12 spherical majority choice over Jermaine Franklin in London final November.
“The provide was made to Dillian over the weekend. We’re ready for his response to that, and we’ll discuss in the present day,” mentioned Eddie Hearn to BBC Sport about his making a proposal to journeyman Dillian Whyte to combat Anthony Joshua on August twelfth.
“Dillian has numerous worth within the rematch. It is a massive combat between two world-class heavyweights and big British names.
“The negotiations shall be troublesome, however AJ and Whyte need the combat,” mentioned Hearn.
For followers who thought Devin Haney’s win over Vasily Lomachenko was a theft, this was far worse. The one purpose it didn’t make big headlines is that Whyte isn’t a preferred fighter worldwide.
Some Brits nonetheless like Whyte in the identical approach they like journeyman Derek Chisora. They like easy sluggers who win a number of the time however lose once they’re stepped up towards high quality opposition.
Whyte was given a choice over Jermaine Franklin by the scores 116-112, 116-112, and 115-115. This author had Franklin successful 9-3. Curiously, Joshua had Franklin successful as properly, so it’s shocking that he’s selecting to take his profession backward by combating Whyte.
AJ would possibly as properly take a rematch with Franklin as a result of he’d at the very least be combating a greater fighter that might give him tune-up.