Dillian Whyte wants Fres Oquendo in December for WBA title

By Scott Gilfoid: Having no luck with his negotiations with Dereck Chisora, Dillian Whye is setting his sights on facing 45-year-old Fres Oquendo for December in hopes that he’ll agree to face him for the vacant World Boxing Association secondary heavyweight title once the title is stripped from current champion Manuel Charr following his positive tests for anabolic steroids.

Whyte (24-1, 17 KOs) is ranked below #1 Trevor Bryan and #4 Jarrell Miller in the WBA’s rankings at heavyweight, so it’s unlikely that the sanctioning body will agree to let him face Oquendo (37-8, 24 KOs) for their vacant title.

Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing is in negotiations with Dereck Chisora (29-8, 21 KOs) for a fight against Dillian, but the negotiations don’t appear to be going well. Whyte is insisting that he

“Who’s next in line?” Whyte said to Fighthype about the next contender in line to face Fres Oquendo for the vacant World Boxing Association heavyweight title following WBA champion Manuel Charr’s positive tests for anabolic steroids.“Fres Oquendo, I think. If he’s looking to work, I’m looking to fight in December, so he can have it. I’m fighting December 22. If Fres Oquendo wants work, he can have it,” Whyte said.

If it’s the WBA that makes the decision who fights for their vacant WBA title, then they’re going to offer the fight to the next highest ranked contender in their rankings, which is American Trevor Bryan. The last time I checked, Whyte is ranked BELOW Bryan at #4 in the WBA’s rankings. Heck, Whyte is ranked below #5 Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller in the WBA’s rankings as well, so that tells you where he’s at in the pecking order for the WBA title. It seems to me that Whyte isn’t even in the equation for the WBA strap. I’m just saying.

”Eddie [Hearn] talks crap, man,” Whyte said about Hearn saying that the Whyte-Chisora negotiations have been difficult. “The fighters aren’t being difficult. I’m the A-side guy in the fight; it’s as simple as that. I took fights where I wasn’t the A-side, and I’m looking to give guys similar deals to what I was getting at that time, you know? I’ve been at where they’ve been at before. I know how it works. I know the structure. I am my own manager, so I’m being fair. The same deal they gave me when I was coming through, I’m giving these guys the same deal. I’ve had the learning fights. I’ve taken fights where I was paid nothing to fight to take these fights to get into position. I fought Lucas Browne for nothing to get the big fight. So I’ve done my apprenticeship now. ”So it’s time that I start getting the deal of the A-side that I should be getting,” Whyte said.

So there it is. Whyte is saying that he wants to be the A-side and he expects Chisora, 34, to be the B-side in the negotiations. I’m sure that Chisora might not mind being the B-side in the negotiations, but he’s not going to take crumbs to fight Whyte. I mean, Chisora brings a lot to the table in terms of his name recognition for a fight against Whyte. As such, Chisora isn’t going to take a deal that is so unfair that it’s not even worth taking. If Whyte is stubborn about it, what’s likely to happen is he’ll end up with no fight against Chisora for December 22, so he’ll need to face an unknown scrub, which will make it very difficult for Hearn to sell that fight on Sky Box Office PPV. The boxing fans aren’t going to want to pay to see Whyte beat up on a no hoper like Malcolm Tann or some other journeyman.