Parker’s promoter surprised Whyte didn’t include him as option for Dec.22 fight

By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker’s promoter David Higgins was surprised that Joseph’s name wasn’t included in the list of potential opponents for Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte (24-1, 17 KOs) to fight on December 22 in his next bout on Sky Box Office PPV at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Higgins feels that with the way that the referee mangled the officiating for the Parker vs. Whyte fight last July, a rematch between the two fighters should be taking place in December.

Whyte, 30, is on the verge of signing for a rematch against Dereck Chisora (29-8, 21 KOs) for his December 22 fight. This is not the fight that the fans want to see. Chisora is a good heavyweight, but this is not the right time for a rematch.

Like with Parker, Whyte has a controversial decision win over Chisora from their fight in December 2016. Chisora lost a 12 round split decision to Whyte, but the boxing public worldwide saw that as controversial decision. The fans saw Chisora as the true winner of the fight.

“It’s interesting that he didn’t mention Joseph Parker’s name,” Higgins said to skysports.com. “To me it says that they are running the other way, knowing that without officiating errors, Parker would have overcome and beaten him. To me that’s an admission that he’s scared of Joseph Parker. Dillian Whyte knows there’s unfinished business with Joseph Parker,” Higgins said.

Whyte is completely focused on the Chisora fight on December 22, and then the rematch against Joshua on April 13. Parker is not in the picture, and likely has little chance of a second fight against Whyte unless he can somehow win another world title.

Last July, referee Ian John Lewis gave Whyte credit for a knockdown in the 2nd round against Parker. However, there were no actual punches thrown by Whyte. Instead, he accidentally rammed heads with Parker like a Billy goat, knocking him to the canvas. The referee Lewis was watching the action but shockingly but he failed to pick up what was a clear head-butt.

Whyte looked like an offensive tackle in the NFL with the way he rammed Parker, and it’s mind-boggling that the referee failed to spot the textbook form head-butt. Not surprisingly, Parker was out of sorts from the skull-shaking head-butt for a few rounds. In the meantime, Whyte was roughing Parker up something awful in plain view of the referee, but no fouls were called. It looked to some boxing fans like Parker was being mugged by Whyted. To Parker’s credit, he showed heart in coming back from the head-butt , and he rallied in the late rounds and had Whyte on his backside in the 12th, ready to be knocked out. Parker ran out of time though, as the round expired before he could finish Dillian off. Whyte ended up winning the fight by the scores 114-111, 115-110 and 113-112. Even so, Parker would have won the fight if the referee had made the right call on the 2nd round head-butt knockdown, and if he had taken off multiple points from Whyte for all the rabbit punches and low blows he was throwing in the contest.