Dillian Whyte To Appeal WBC Rule
Boxer Dillian Whyte has stated his intentions to object to the WBC’s ruling that prevents him from a match against Deontay Wilder as his mandatory challenger. Promoter Eddie Hearn, recently revealed the news. The WBC made the announcement last week, ruling that Whyte must fight Luis Ortiz instead, which is to be a “second mandatory.” Wilder, on the other hand, has his primary mandatory set as Dominic Breazeale, and further upsets may well be on the cards.
Hearn has since stated that, “We’re going to appeal that. Mauricio Sulaiman said he would talk about it this week, and maybe post a resolution. We don’t mind fighting Ortiz, but it has to be for the mandatory, not to be the second mandatory behind a guy who has never fought an eliminator and who is behind Whyte in the rankings. It’s outrageous.”
The WBC has ranked Whyte as number one for a while, and he currently owns their silver title. A title that he won in March this year after besting Lucas Brown. Despite this, the WBC still favoured Breazeale who is currently at rank number two. Whyte has told reporters, “I’ve had the sanctioning fights, I’ve done everything they have asked me to do. My information was – I was meant to be next in line.”
Hearn has reported that Anthony Joshua vs. Wilder for four major heavyweight titles is “70 per cent” likely to happen in the coming months, after stating that he held positive conversations in recent weeks.
The Current Match Rotation
It’s believed that the Joshua and Wilder mandatory obligations would be put on hold if an arrangement is organised – most likely to crown an undisputed champion. But the number of challengers is building behind both fighters. Hearn added further, “If Joshua doesn’t fight Wilder, then Wilder will fight Breazeale. If Wilder fights Breazeale, he doesn’t need to be the mandatory. But Wilder’s team will want Breazeale to be the mandatory because there isn’t much credibility in the fight. Let that fight be a voluntary, then the winner of Whyte-Ortiz is the mandatory.”
The WBC’s ruling has opened new opportunities with IBF, who have since ordered that he instead fights Pulev for the chance to become a mandatory challenger to the title owned currently by Joshua. Hearn expanded more on this, “But, also, we’ve got purse bids next week for Whyte vs Kubrat Pulev. Everything is up in the air – but within the next 10 days all of those things will be a lot clearer. It’s a good fight. Dillian can become IBF mandatory and that’s a good place for him to be.
Lastly, he added, “Kalle Sauerland has Pulev and we’ve in extensive dialogue to make the fight. I don’t think me and Kalle have ever been to a purse bid – usually we make the deal. Different fights have different characteristics to the deal. Pulev does not have corporate sponsors, an international TV deal, or the levels of control of Joshua. So it’s all about the money.” Boxing contracts can sometimes be in the millions, and can create further ventures like television deals, slots NZ games, and more. Whether the WBC will rule in favour of Whyte is yet to be seen.
