ONCE AGAIN THE sport of boxing threw up a tale of the unexpected – for many – at the weekend and yet another reminder of the danger of taking your eye off the ball in this game of hard knocks.
Very much like when Anthony Joshua kept talking the talk about Deontay Wilder ahead of what was supposed to be a walkover against Andy Ruiz and then came unstuck, Dillian Whyte spent far too much time keeping Tyson Fury at the forefront of conversations when his focus should have been solely on Alexander Povetkin.
I’ve got no desire to stick the boot in on a man when he is down but I have to look at things from the side of our fighters and what happened on Saturday is precisely why I was so keen on matching Dillian against Daniel Dubois.
You didn’t need to study the form too closely to see this coming. Dillian was down late against Joseph Parker, the same against Oscar Rivas and now Povetkin. Add those to two massive struggles against Dereck Chisora and then match it to the pedigree of the No.1 in the world, Tyson Fury, and you will realise why the prospect of a WBC mandatory defence against Dillian held no great appeal.
Especially if it was to delay the fight that everyone wants to see between Tyson and Anthony Joshua.
The mighty KO inflicted by the Russian has removed a major obstacle in the making of two mega-fights. Tyson has to overcome Wilder and Joshua needs to deal with Kubrat Pulev and after that there is no good reason not to seal the deal.
Once those two fights are hopefully successfully completed by Christmas we will see once and for all who really wants the biggest fight of them all.
