Whyte closing in on Deontay Wilder

By Tim Royner

Dillian Whyte is hoping that a win over Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne this Saturday night will place him in the mandatory position for a title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder. That’s the fight that Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs) and his promoter Eddie Hearn both want.

Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) has almost dismissed the threat that the 29-year-old Whyte brings to him, saying that he can beat him with “one hand tied behind my back.” Whyte wants to test Wilder’s bold words by forcing him to fight him by beating the undefeated 38-year-old Browne (25-0, 22 KOs) this Saturday night the O2 Arena in London, UK. What’s not known is whether the World Boxing Council will force Wilder to take the fight with Whyte in 2018 before he gets a chance to fight IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in a unification fight.

“This fight automatically should take me a step closer and put me in mandatory position,” Whyte said to skysports.com. “People are already asking these questions, but it will definitely push the question a bit more. He underestimates me. Of course he’s going to be watching me,” Whyte said.

Wilder just had a tough fight against previously unbeaten Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (28-1, 24 KOs) on March 3. After that close call, will Wilder want to take on another top fighter in Dillian Whyte?

Wilder would gain the respect of a lot of boxing fans by taking the fight with Whyte, but I don’t know if he’ll be willing to do that after what he went through in his fight with Ortiz. Wilder’s promoters will likely want to match him against someone that the U.S casual boxing fans have heard of. Whyte is fighting on HBO against Browne this Saturday night.

If HBO signs Whyte to a multi-fight deal, it could make putting together a fight between him and Wilder more of a problem. Deontay fights on Showtime Boxing. Wilder would still need to fight Whyte if he becomes his WBC mandatory challenger, but he’s not likely he’ll volunteer to give him a title shot until the World Boxing Council forces him to take the fight. Wilder has too much to lose right now in facing Whyte. Wilder would probably take that fight against Whyte quickly if there was no risk of him losing out on a much bigger money fight with Joshua.

Whyte could have his dreams ruined this Saturday night by the big punches from ‘Big Daddy’ Browne. This is a guy with heavy hands, and he’s easily the biggest puncher that Whyte will have faced since his loss to Anthony Joshua in 2015. Whyte’s last opponent Robert Helenius hurt him with one of his big right hands in the 2nd round last October. Helenius was unable to keep fighting hard after round 2 due to his lack of a lengthy training camp going into the fight. Browne has trained hard, and he likely won’t fade quickly like Helenius did last October. Browne carries his punching power late into his fights. He’s always dangerous even in the 12th. Whyte must be careful against Browne because he could run into something big and wind up getting knocked out.

Whyte getting the fight with Deontay Wilder doesn’t assure success. Things could go very wrong for Whyte against a big puncher like Wilder. Whyte could get knocked out if he’s clipped by one of Wilder’s right hand bombs. The mistake Whyte is making right now is he’s seeing out a positive outcome of a fight against Wilder. Whyte needs to look at the fight realistically from both sides. If Wilder lands one of his perfectly placed right hands, he could separate him from his senses and knock him clean out. The Joshua fight will not happen at that point for Whyte. Even when it eventually does take place, the money might not be as good as it would if Whyte had won all of his fights since his 2015 defeat to Joshua.