Dominic Breazeale wants Dillian Whyte fight in early 2019

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Dominic Breazeale says he would like to face #2 WBC contender Dillian Whyte in early 2019 to help clear up the World Boxing Council rankings and to give the boxing fans an entertaining fight. Whyte (24-1, 17 KOs) holds the WBC Silver title, and he’s been harping about the WBC not making him the mandatory challenger already following his wins over Joseph Parker, Dereck Chisora and Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne. However, Whyte has also undermined his own efforts at becoming the WBC and/or IBF mandatory challenger by turning down eliminator fights against Lucas ‘King Kong’ Ortiz and Kubrat Pulev.

The sanctioning bodies have a process in which they decide mandatory challengers by ordering eliminators. Unfortunately, Whyte hasn’t taken part in those eliminator bouts, and yet he and his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing feel that he should be made the WBC mandatory. As you would guess, the WBC hasn’t let them have their way by making Whyte the mandatory challenger to Wilder. None the less, if Whyte faces Breazeale in early 2019, then he’ll likely be made Wilder’s new WBC mandatory challenger.

The question is will Whyte take a risky fight against the 2012 U.S Olympian Breazeale on April 13 at Wembley Stadium or will he turn it down hoping he’ll be IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s dance partner on that date? The answer is predictable. Hearn has already said he either wants the Wilder vs. Tyson Fury winner for April 13 or Whyte. Since all Hearn is offering Wilder is a $15 million flat fee for the April 13 fight with Joshua, it goes without saying that it won’t be him that takes the fight. It’s clear that Whyte is the guy that Hearn will be matching against Joshua on that date.

”I only thought it was right for him and myself to get in the ring and square it off,” Breazeale said to skysports.com. ”If they want to see it, I’m going to make it happen. It’s definitely up to Dillian Whyte, but I’m a fan pleaser.”

Well, a fight for Breazeale against Whyte wouldn’t just be for the fun of it, would it? Breazeale would arguably get a bigger payday fighting the 30-year-old Whyte (24-1, 17 KOs) on Sky Box Office pay-per-view than he would in waiting around until 2020 to face WBC champion Deontay (40-0, 39 KOs). The highly talented Wilder is facing Tyson Fury (27-0, 19 KOs) in a big money fight in November. After that fight, Wilder and Fury will likely face each other in an immediate rematch in the first half of 2019. A second win by Wilder over the 6’9” Fury will lead to a huge money unification fight between Deonay and Joshua in late 2019. As such, Wilder probably won’t have a chance to defend his WBC title against Breazeale until the second half of 2020, because Joshua will surely demand a rematch with Wilder in the first half of 2020 to try and avenge his loss to him from late 2019.

The towering 6’7” Breazeale WILL get his mandatory title shot against WBC champion Wilder, but he’ll likely need to wait for it to happen for another two years. I know it sounds unfair to the average boxing fan, but it’s business. There’s lots of green stuff for Wilder, Joshua and Whyte to make by fighting each other. Joshua will take care of Whyte in April, as Hearn has already hinted about, and then Wilder will get his shot at Joshua in late 2019. As I mentioned previously, the Joshua-Wilder mega-fight will be contingent upon Hearn giving Deontay a 50 percent cut of the money fight for the fight.

Wilder will NOT accept a flat fee for the fight. As long as Hearn is ready to give Wilder a reasonable offer of 50-50, there’s nothing preventing the Wilder-Joshua fight from taking place in the last three months of 2019 if he’s still the champion by then. You never know though. If Whyte can wear Joshua down like he did in the 2nd round of their fight in November 2015, he might knock him out. Joshua weighed in the 240s then, and his stamina was still something awful. You can’t blame Joshua’s terrible conditioning on him being overly muscled. He simply didn’t have the cardiovascular system to fight hard without gassing out badly.

Breazeale, 32, put himself into the WBC mandatory spot by doing a fine job of defeating former two-time heavyweight world title challenger Eric Molina in defeating the hard hitting Mexican knockout artist by an 8th round stoppage on November 4, 2017. At the time, Whyte was apoplectic about the news of Breazeale getting the prestigious WBC mandatory spot to face Wilder instead of himself. Whyte felt that his recent string of victories over these fighters should have earned him the mandatory position to face the 6’7” Deontay: Robert Helenius, Malcolm Tann and Dereck Chisora. Those fighters weren’t what the WBC was looking for in selecting a mandatory with their organization.

The WBC wanted Whyte to fight the highly talented southpaw Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz in a WBC eliminator, but for some reason Dillian rejected that idea. Only Whyte knows why he didn’t agree to fight the 6’3” Ortiz. Perhaps he didn’t fancy the idea of mixing it up with a fighter with Ortiz’s talent and punching power. After all, Whyte was arguably beaten by Dereck Chisora in 2016 in winning a controversial 12 round split decision. With Ortiz being viewed as the No.3 heavyweight in boxing in the eyes of a lot of fans, it might have been an off-putting for Whyte to take on a guy with that kind of talent. Whyte’s awful performance against Chisora suggests that he would have been trounced by a fighter like Ortiz, so perhaps he understood what his limitations are as a fighter and chose not to take the fight with the Cuban talent for that reason. At any case, Whyte only has himself to blame for not being installed as the WBC mandatory. But the good news is that Whyte can now put himself in position as the WBC mandatory if he agrees to face Breazeale and if he beats him. That’s a big IF though, because Whyte unquestionably should have lost his last fight against former WBO champion Joseph Parker last July in the eyes of a lot of fans. That was the infamous fight in which the referee Ian John Lewis blew a call in round 2 in giving Whyte credit for a knockdown after he plowed head-first into the head of Parker, causing him to ricochet to the canvas like a rubber ball. The referee Lewis gave Whyte credit for a knockdown when he should have waived it off and given Parker time to recover from the head-butt. Further, Whyte did a lot of fouling in the fight that you can argue should have let to him losing between 2 and 3 points. When you add in all the missed calls in the contest, which took place in London, England, it’s easy to see Parker winning by a comfortable 4-point margin.

“I was looking to be in the ring earlier this spring in about April,” Breazeale said.

Breazeale fighting in April is perfect for a match between him and Whyte to take place at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Hearn has that big April 13 card at Wembley, so it’s a perfect fight for the occasion with Joshua head-lining against a still to be determined opponent. Whyte wants at least one more fight before facing Joshua anyway. Who better for Whyte to fight than Breazeale? Whyte and Breazeale have both tangled with Joshua in the past, but unfortunately it didn’t work out well for either of them. Joshua stopped Whyte in the 7h round on December 12, 2015. For his part, Breazeale was knocked out by Joshua in the 7th round on June 25, 2016.