Whyte shouldn’t have underestimated Povetkin, the guys had some devastating knock out wins in his career
Love Eddie Hearn and his spin. Pre fight "the winner is guaranteed a shot at Fury/Wilder 3 winner", Whyte gets KO'd "We'll be exercising the rematch clause"
Just one of them things. Whyte controlled every second of the fight. Doubt you’ll see a more perfect shot in boxing.
Apart from the last second.... never saw that coming and neither did Whyte, that punch would have taken anybody out.
I don't think the fight was ever built as a world title eliminator. The only 'noise' I read and heard was that if Dillian Whyte had won, then the Fury/Wilder winner would have had to begin negotiations for fighting him the very next day. You can't win someone's mandatory without it being an eliminator. Otherwise you'd have guys outside the top ten getting a surprise win and being flung in to a fight against the champ. Let's not forget this was a 41-year old Povetkin who was knocked out by AJ, beat Hughie Fury on a close points call, and drew with Michael Hunter. Yes he can punch, but as the two knockdowns proved his best days were some time ago.
Great result for boxing. So long as AJ deals with Pulev, and Fury takes care of Wilder again, there’s no excuse not to make the biggest fight in British boxing, if not world boxing. In fact, I’d love to see Wilder in with Joshua just as much. But none of those fights happen until crowds are allowed back.
Agreed. Made the path a lot clearer. The Saudis have already said they'll pay ridiculous money and have limited fans there. The sooner it happens the better, but the sooner it happens the less chance there is it will be in the UK. April/May would be nice.
partly I agree, but to be fair their was a lot of talk from Eddie, and the press, interviews and about this fight being the one that gives Whyte the shot at Fury / Wilder winner. Maybe not an official eliminator but the topic was how the fight had been promoted. Clearly and as stated afterwards this was in favour of Whyte and didn’t give Povetkin the chance. The rematch is the only way to get Whyte back into the reckoning for this. For me I was never overly excited about this match up as I agree Povetkin seems to be the elder statesman wheeled out whenever they want to use big fight promo when it really isn’t. Problem is the fights people truely wanted to see have been sidestepped for the last couple of years and the lockdown probably means some may never happen or at best will be beyond the fighters being at their peak in career.
Maybe that's down to interpretation rather than anything Hearn said? It was always, in my mind, Whyte's chance to finally enforce his WBC mandatory and Povetkin's chance at avoiding retirement. Povetkin was never going to be in the Fury/Wilder reckoning by winning. Mandatory positions don't work like that without it being billed a 'WBC Eliminator'. That stupid Silver belt was only there to increase the sanctioning fees for the WBC.
Hearn may find a excuse he's a master at it. He was already saying that if Fury had vacated to avoid the Whyte fight (to give us the fight we all want) that AJ would just fight Whyte. While we would all rather it was for all the straps most of us just want to see the best fight the best.
AJ needs Fury. That horrific defeat against Ruiz was avenged, but Tyson is unbeaten and just slayed the most dangerous heavyweight since Iron Mike. And is about to fight him for a third time. Assuming both come through their next bouts, and Joshua were to be the first to topple the Gypsy King, in an all-British fight for all the gold, that would be unreal. He'd still need to fight Wilder for me though. Whereas, if Fury were to beat Anthony, you'd have to call Fury one of the all-time greats. Ideal world: Fury Wilder III Fury Joshua Fury Joshua II Wilder Joshua Wilder Joshua II Etc Etc.
Depends how Wilder rebounds. Could be another Jeff Lacey all over again. If Wilder loses to Fury for the second time, and it isn't a close fight, I wouldn't be surprised to see him drop down to the new division they're talking about between Cruiserweight and Heavyweight. I'd much rather we see Fury v AJ dominate 2021, and then check where we are with Dubois/Joyce in 2022. Let the Brits fight for all the marbles for a couple of years, with Usyk slotted in somewhere in between (just because he's such a great guy and deseves it).
