Dillian Whyte upset with WBC for ordering him to fight Luis Ortiz in eliminator

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid

Dillian Whyte and his promoter Eddie Hearn are both upset with the World Boxing Council ordering him to face the dangerous Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz in a heavyweight eliminator fight to get a shot at WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.

Whyte (23-1, 17 KOs) and Hearn both feel that he should have been made the WBC mandatory challenger for Wilder after his recent win over 38-year-old Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (25-1, 22 KOs) last March in London, England. The WBC obviously wasn’t impressed enough with Whyte’s victory over the ring rusty and out of shape looking Browne for them to make him the WBC mandatory.

The WBC clearly wants Whyte to earn the mandatory spot rather than having it given to him on a silver platter without having to earn it the hard way. If Whyte doesn’t like the idea of fighting Ortiz, then he doesn’t have to. Hearn can always line him up for an undeserved title shot against his Matchroom Boxing stable-mate Anthony Joshua.

The WBC mandatory for Wilder is Dominic Breazeale (19-1, 17 KOs), who has earned his stripes with tough fights against Anthony Joshua, Eric Molina and Izuagbe Ugonoh and Amir Mansour.

The WBC said this about ordering the Whyte vs. Ortiz secondary title eliminator: “April 2018 WBC orders a final elimination bout between Dillian Whyte and Luis Ortiz for the second mandatory of the division.”

Whyte and Hearn haven’t yet said whether they’ll agree to the Ortiz fight or not. If they don’t, then they can forget about getting a fight with Deontay anytime soon, because it’s not going to happen. Wilder won’t throw Whyte a bone by letting him have a world title shot as a voluntary challenger. That’s not realistic unless Hearn offers him the $7 million smackers that he’s been asking for to take that fight.

“I have vented my frustration at Mauricio Sulaiman today, and he will be getting further correspondence,” Hearn said to skysports.com about him contacting WBC president Sulaiman after learning of Whyte being ordered to fight Luis Ortiz in a WBC eliminator fight.

Instead of complaining about the WBC having ordered the Whyte-Ortiz eliminator, Whyte and Hearn need to go along with the program and start working on putting the fight together right now. After all, the sooner the Whyte-Ortiz eliminator fight is made by Hearn, the faster Whyte can be made Wilder’s WBC mandatory. Of course, if Whyte loses to Ortiz, which is a very real possibility, then he’ll need to go back to the rebuilding phase of his career to try and come back. It’s taken Whyte three years to rebuild from his loss to Joshua in 2015.

It’s hard to believe the 29-year-old Whyte is still attempting to tunnel his way back to the top after that loss, because it seemed like it took place centuries ago. So much has happened since then in the boxing world. If Whyte gets beaten by Ortiz in a similar manner, I’m not sure if he’ll ever be able to come back from the loss. Hearn might need to just let Whyte have the title shot against Joshua without him earning the fight, because it’s risky to have him try and earn it the hard way by beating good opposition.

”I’m very, very disappointed and annoyed. I feel betrayed by the WBC to be honest,”Whyte said to skysports.com. ”I’ve done everything they have asked me to do. My information was – I was meant to be next in line. If anything, the WBC should be ordering me and Breazeale to fight in a final eliminator to face Wilder,” Whyte said.

Let’s look at the facts and checkout the actual opposition that Whyte has been fighting lately. Here are the guys that Whyte has been padding his resume with since 2016:

• Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne – 39-years-old and with just one under his belt in the last 2 years going into his match with Whyte last March. Browne appeared to be at least 15 lbs. overweight for the Whyte fight, and very slow and old looking. I hate to say it but Browne didn’t look anything like a 1st tier heavyweight. He looked like an old journeyman on the night. As such, Whyte’s win over Browne was hardly the type of fight that you’re used to seeing in a heavyweight title eliminator. Whyte has got to do better than this if he wants to share the ring with a talent like Deontay

• Robert Helenius – This is another aging heavyweight that Whyte fought recently last October in Cardiff, Wales. The 34-year-old Helenius had been knocked out in the 6th round by Johann Duhaupas in April 2016. Since that fight, Helenius had wins over journeyman fighters Konstantin Airich (23-17-2), Gonzalo Omar Basile (68-11) and Evgeny Orlov (17-14-1).

• Malcolm Tann – The 39-year-old Tann had lost 2 out of his last 3 fights going into the fight with Whyte last year in August. Need I say more?

• Dereck Chisora – This is a fight that Whyte should have lost. He was given a controversial 12 round split decision win over Chisora in December 2016. Boxing News 24 had Chisora winning a close decision.

• Ian Lewison – This is another journeyman level opponent that Whyte beat by a 10th round knockout in October 2016. Heavyweight prospect Joe Joyce recently did a better job of beating Lewison than Whyte did in stopping him in the 8th round while only using his left hand during the entire fight. Joyce gave Lewison a handicap by using his left hand for all the punching and he stilled stopped him in the 8th.

• David Allen – a British domestic level heavyweight, who recently was beaten by journeyman Lenroy Rhomas by a 12 round split decision last year in May.

• Ivican Bacurin – This is another journeyman that Whyte beat. Bacurin’s record is 29-13-1.
As you can see, Whyte hasn’t fought good enough opposition for him to deserve to be the WBC mandatory challenger for Wilder’s WBC crown. If Whyte and Hearn want to know why the WBC hasn’t made him the mandatory for Wilder, all they need to do is look at the Body Snatcher’s resume in the last two years of his career, and it’ll tell the entire story. Hearn has blown it when it comes to match-making for Whyte. Instead of putting Whyte in with the talents, he’s been spoon-feeding him soft jobs, and now he’s upset that the WBC haven’t made him the mandatory challenger to Wilder. Hearn is doing the same thing with Daniel Jacobs by matching him against weak opponents to try and get him the WBA mandatory spot for a rematch against WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.

Whyte is always calling guys out, and saying he wants to fight the best. If Whyte is as good as he says he is, then he should have no problems fighting Luis Ortiz (28-1, 24 KOs), right? If Whyte is the best thing since sliced bread, then he shouldn’t be bellyaching about having to fight the Cuban talent Ortiz. If Whyte wins that fight, he’ll not only be the WBC mandatory to Wilder, but he’ll also increase his popularity and status in the heavyweight division. Of course, if Whyte loses to Ortiz, his career will be in shambles, but oh well. Whyte will still be with Hearn, who will him a crack at Joshua anyway.

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