Dillian Whyte vs. Dominic Breazeale targeted for July

By Scott Gilfoid

Boxingnews24.com

Dominic ‘Trouble’ Breazeale (20-1, 18 KOs) and Dillian Whyte (25-1, 18 KOs) will likely be facing each other in July, possibly in the UK, according to Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn. Whyte had tentatively scheduled to fight on April 20 at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Things are different now that the World Boxing Council has released the news that they’ve ordered Breazeale and Whyte to face each other next for their ‘interim’ WBC heavyweight title.

The WBC has a purse bid scheduled for March 10 at the HQ in Mexico City. Hearn is overjoyed at the WBC making that move, because it now enables him to corner the winner of the rematch between WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, so that they have to fight one of his own fighters from his Matchroom stable, be it Whyte or IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua. Hearn isn’t aying, but it appears that he prefers the winner of the Wilder-Fury rematch to fight Whyte rather than Joshua. It’s easy to understand why. Hearn knows that Joshua can beat Whyte, but he doesn’t know that AJ can beat Wilder or Fury. It’s more in Hearn’s best interest if Whyte beats Breazeale and the Wilder-Fury winner, so that it’s him that faces Joshua.

“It’s very slim [that Dillian Whyte will be fighting on April 20 at the O2,” Hearn said to IFL TV about the date for the Whyte vs. Breazeale fight. “I think it’s going to be more like July, because I think the purse bids are going to be in April, and then he’ll be 90 days,” Hearn said.

April 20 would be much too early for Breazeale and Whyte to be fighting each other. There’s still too much negotiations that need to take place before they can consider having the fight take place that soon. Moreover, the location of the Breazeale vs. Whyte match still needs to be agreed on. Hearn obviously wants the fight to take place in the UK, but Breazeale, 33, and his adviser Al Haymon likely won’t be too thrilled at that idea and nor will they likely want the fight to be placed on DAZN. The way things look, the fight is almost surely going to go to a purse bid, and from there it’ll whichever promoter/manager has the deepest pockets that will pick when and where the fight will take place. If Breazeale has to go to the UK to fight Whyte, he’s going to be ready for a very physical fight with a lot of fouling, and potentially a great deal of referee involvement. It’s going to be tough on Breazeale if he has to fight Whyte in the UK. Hopefully there’s no premature stoppages like the Joshua vs. Carlos Takam fight.

“At the moment, it’s 50-50,” Hearn said about the purse split for the Whyte vs. Breazeale fight. “Breazeale for some reason is mandatory, but Dillian is #1, so I’m going to be writing to the WBC. I think he’s [Whyte] going to get the bigger split. He’s been #1 for two years,” Hearn said.

It’ll be interesting to see if Hearn is able to work his magic with the WBC to get them to give his fighter Whyte the larger purse split for the Breazeale fight, even though he’s in a lesser position given that Dominic is the mandatory and he’s just the WBC Silver belt holder. Breazeale’s adviser Al Haymon might want to make sure he contacts the WBC as well in order to keep Hearn from working a deal with the sanctioning body. It’s already a rotten deal for Breazeale that the WBC has suddenly ordered him to fight Whyte for the interim WBC title when he’s already the WBC mandatory challenger for Deontay Wilder. It wouldn’t be a big deal if this was somthing that Breazeale could take part in if he wanted to, and he had nothing to lose if he were to get beaten by Whyte. The problem is, Breazeale has everything to lose if he gets beaten by Whyte. A loss for Breazeale means that he will no longer be the WBC mandatory challenger. So in other words, the WBC has basically just ordered Breazeale to take part in a second title eliminator for the WBC belt, even thought he already earned that position by beating Eric Molina two years ago. It’s a bad deal for Breazeale to have to take part in this, because the money won’t be as good fighting Whyte, especially if Hearn is able to work a deal to where the WBC lets Whyte get more than 50% of the purse. Just how much bigger Whyte’s purse will be than Breazeale’s is hard to guess. If goes to something crazy like 75-25 or 70-30 in Whyte’s favor, then Breazeale is getting worked over big time by the WBC and Hearn. Breazeale could still win the fight, and get the last laugh, but that’s going to be hard for him to do if Hearn gets his way and is able to have the match take place in the UK. Breazeale might need a knockout to win a fight if the scoring and or the officiating is haywire like we saw in Whyte’s fights with Dereck Chisora and Joseph Parker.

Breazeale is the mandatory because he agreed to fight Eric Molina in a WBC eliminator. Whyte could have been the mandatory, but he didn’t accept the fights that were offered to him against Luis Ortiz. It’s as simple as that. There’s no mystery about it. If Whyte wanted to be the mandatory, he should have fought Ortiz, but for some reason he didn’t want to do that. He wanted to be made the WBC mandatory, but he didn’t take the fight the the sanctioning body wanted him to.
“It’s good they [World Boxing Council] made that move,” Hearn said in expressing happiness that the WBC has ordered their heavyweight mandatory contender Breazeale to face Whyte for the interim WBC title. “I don’t think Breazeale will be very happy, because I think he wanted to sit tight. Dillian is in a good position.”

Oh yeah, Breazeale can’t be too happy with this. He now has to fight Whyte for his own WBC mandatory position that he already earned by beating Molina. Why does the WBC need to have Whyte and Breazeale fight for their interim title? Who does that benefit? The only one that stands to gain from the fight is Whyte, who isn’t a mandatory, and has been making the wrong moves by taking on soft opponents like journeyman Dereck Chisora, Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne and Robert Helenius rather than Luis Ortiz. Parker is a good fighter, but he got worked over in fighting Whyte at the O2 with the referee blowing a knockdown call, and failing to take points off from Dillian for his fouling.

“It’ll probably go to purse bid,” Hearn said about the Whyte-Breazeale negotiations. “I’ll try and get Breazeale over here [to the UK] to fight Whyte]. I’d rather make a deal, but I think when you look at it logically, we’re going to try and get Breazeale here. If not, we’ll do it in America. [Al] Haymon might not want to let Breazeale go on DAZN. I don’t think they’ll come up with enough money to get Dillian to accept the deal without it going to purse bid. If it does, it really doesn’t matter. The aim of the fighter is the same. He’s got to win the fight, and then he’ll be in a good position. So I’m hoping he can win that fight, and then we can get everybody cornered. It’s one way to get that WBC strap [for Matchroom and eventually for Joshua],” Hearn said.

With Matchroom’s deep pockets, it’s hard to imagine the Whyte vs. Breazeale fight taking place in the U.S. It’s very likely the fight will take place in the UK at the O2. If takes place, it’ll be fine as long there’s no controversy like there was in the recent Whyte-Chisora and Whyte-Parker fights. Those were both very questionable fights when it came to the officiating.

“He’s made it clear to me it clear to me where he [Dillian Whyte] wants to be from that fight and onward,” Hearn said in addressing the possibility of Whyte signing with Premier Boxing Champions. “He’s in a great spot. He knows Sky is going to be bidding hard for that fight [against Breazeale]. PBC will probably be bidding for the fight,” Hearn said.