Dillian Whyte upset at low offer from Anthony Joshua

By Trevor McIntyre

Boxingnews24.com

Dillian Whyte (25-1, 18 KOs) is reportedly unhappy after receiving what he considers a poor first offer to face IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) for a big money contest on Sky Box Office on April 13 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Whyte says that he, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury are the only ones that are popular enough to fill the old 100,000 seat Wembley Stadium on April 13. However, Wilder will be facing Fury next in a rematch, and neither of them will be available to fight Joshua on that date.

“There’s been a first offer but it is utterly ridiculous,” Whyte said to Talksport.com, “It’s way less than what I made against Chisora basically… They’re not serious about the fight, I don’t think they want the fight, I think they just made an offer to cover ground.”

It’s quite possible that the offer that was made to Whyte was done just so that Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn Of Matchroom Boxing can say they tried to make the fight, but Dillian didn’t want it. The boxing public won’t come down hard on Joshua if they believe that Whyte is the one that is keeping the contest from happening by pricing himself out.

The fight that Joshua seems to want right now is the Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller fight, and it’s unclear whether that’s a fight that would bring in a lot of boxing fans as well in the UK. Miller (23-0-1, 20 KOs) is unquestionably the best trash talker in the heavyweight division, and he would likely do the heavy lifting of building the Joshua fight by doing lots of interviews, and coming up with great sound bites for the boxing fans to digest. When Joshua and the 315 pound Miller have met up with each other in the past, it was interesting to watch. Joshua seems to like that kind of an opponent, and that makes it a more compelling fight than for him to face a guy that he already beat before in Dillian Whyte. Joshua, 29, knocked Whyte out in the seventh round on December 12, 2015. Although a lot of time has gone by since that fight, not enough obviously for Joshua to be excited at negotiating a rematch.

Whyte maintains that he’s a pay-per-view star in the UK, and not a journeyman level guy. For that reason, he feels that Joshua should give him a far better offer than the one that he received.

There’s no word from Whyte on how much was offered to him from Joshua. But you have to believe that it’s not in the same ballpark as the $15 million flat fee that Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) was offered for a fight against Joshua last September. If this is what Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn believe another world champion deserves, then it stands to reason that a mere challenger without a title would receive considerably less than that amount. Whyte is a big enough name in the UK to help bring in a lot of money from ticket sales, and pay-per-view on Sky Box Office.

It’s understandable on his part if he feels he’s not going to be able to share in the plunder from a big money fight against the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Joshua. Whyte would have a chance of getting a much better deal in a trilogy fight with Joshua if he accepts the current offer, and then beats him on April 13. Whyte would get a big bump up in pay for fight number 3, and he would wind up making a small fortune. However, there’s no way of predicting the outcome of the Joshua-Whyte 2 fight on April 13. It could very well be a repeat of the first fight between them, and that would be bad news for Whyte.

It’s taken him nearly four years to be considered for a rematch with Joshua after losing to him in late 2015. If Whyte gets beaten in the rematch, which is very possible given how he looked in his recent fight against Dereck Chisora on December 22, then there would no chance of a third fight in the near future. Joshua would be the one that would be getting the lion’s share of the revenue for the rematch, and Whyte might not ever see a third fight if he loses.s

Hearn obviously will try and rebuild Whyte’s career as fast as possible in feeding him lower level fighters like he’s mostly done after his loss to Joshua in 2015, but it would still take a long time fore he could try and sell a third fight to the boxing public without being heavily criticized by the fans. The fans are only willing to see the same fighters face each other so many times before they throw up their hands, and walk away in disgust.

If Joshua beats Whyte for a second time, it’ll take some real quality wins on Dillian’s part for him to be taken seriously by the British boxing fans for a third fight against Joshua. Hearn didn’t put Whyte against anyone good like Luis Ortiz, Dominic Breazeale, Joe Joyce or Adam Kownacki in rebuilding him after his loss to Joshua. But if Hearn wants to feed the public a third Joshua-Whyte fight, he’s going to need start putting him in with good fighters that can potentially beat him instead of flawed guys like Dave Allen, Lucas Browne, Robert Helenius and Ivica Bacurin.

Whyte, 30, is the only big name capable of helping Joshua sellout the Wembley Stadium, unless Wladimir Klitschko comes out of retirement.

The offer that Whyte has been given from Joshua makes him think that he doesn’t want to fight him, and he could be right. Whyte sees Joshua only wanting to get easier fights. The fights that Joshua wants right now is Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller and the winner of the Wilder vs. Fury 2 fight. The Whyte fight will always be there for Joshua. He’s taking a similar approach to how Amir Khan is taking with Kell Brook by putting that fight on hold while he goes after a world title against WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford on April 20. There’s no rush for Khan to take the fight with Brook, because there’s going to be a huge amount of interest from the British boxing fans no matter what happens in his fight against Crawford. It’s a payday that can wait. Joshua can do the same thing by taking the more compelling fights against Miller and Wilder and Fury before facing Whyte.

In terms of worldwide interest from boxing fans, they want to see Joshua fight Wilder, Fury and Miller. Whyte is only popular in the UK, but not worldwide. That could change if Whyte were to be more open about fighting outside of the UK in the States, but he’s not doing that. Even if Whyte did start fighting in the U.S, it would take a long time before he build up the fan base that Jarrell Miller currently has. Whyte isn’t a great talker like Miller, and he lacks the charisma and sense of humor that the New Yorker has going for him. Whyte does a lot of scowling, and he frequently seems angry during his interviews, whether asked tough questions or not.

Whyte just seems to get triggered often, and it’s like a minefield for interviewers when asking him questions. Miller takes a light approach to his interviews, joking and and making sure he says the right thing to help the reporters and himself get publicity. Right now, Miller is the best in the business at hyping his fights. Miller still hasn’t fought any of the really big names in the heavyweight division, but he’s still done a great job of creating interest in his matches against the limited competition that he’s had. Hearn wants the Joshua vs. Miller fight, as he knows it’s the best way to help make AJ popular in the U.S before he sets up a match between him and Wilder. Whyte does nothing for Joshua to make him a bigger name in the U.S.