Not a single British judge will work one of the biggest fights in England’s rich boxing history.
The British Boxing Board of Control has revealed the judging panel for the Tyson Fury-Dillian Whyte fight Saturday night for Fury’s WBC heavyweight title. Italy’s Guido Cavalleri, Mexico’s Juan Carlos Pelayo and Canada’s Robert Tapper have been assigned to score a 12-round showdown that’ll attract a capacity crowd of 94,000 to Wembley Stadium in London, which will set a British boxing record for attendance.
British referee Mark Lyson has been assigned to officiate Fury-Whyte as well.
Among the judges who will watch Fury-Whyte from ringside seats, Tapper and Cavalleri have respective recent history with Fury and Whyte.
Tapper scored Fury a 114-112 winner over Deontay Wilder in their first fight. Winnipeg’s Tapper was the only judge who credited Fury for beating Wilder in a 12-round bout that resulted in a controversial split draw in December 2018 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Whereas Tapper scored eight of 12 rounds for Fury in their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event, American Alejandro Rochin scored seven rounds for Wilder, 115-111. England’s Phil Edwards scored seven rounds for Fury, but he had it a draw on his card, 113-113, because Wilder knocked Fury to the canvas twice, once apiece in the ninth and 12th rounds.
Cavalleri, meanwhile, scored Whyte a 115-112 winner over Oscar Rivas in their July 2019 bout at O2 Arena in London. The two other judges that night, Liverpool’s Lyson (115-112) and Canada’s Craig Metcalfe (116-111), scored eight and nine rounds for Whyte, respectively.
Rivas dropped Whyte in the ninth round, but a resilient Whyte recovered and won a unanimous decision.
Lyson also was the referee when Russian underdog Alexander Povetkin knocked Whyte unconscious in the fifth round of their first fight in August 2020 at Matchroom Boxing’s headquarters in Brentwood, England. Whyte came back to stop Povetkin in a one-sided rematch a year ago at Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar.
ESPN Pay-Per-View will televise Fury-Whyte as a main event Saturday in the United States (2 p.m. ET; $69.99). BT Sport Box Office will offer the mandated match between Manchester’s Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) and London’s Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) as the headliner of a pay-per-view event in the United Kingdom and Ireland (6 p.m. BST; £24.95).
Caesars Sportsbook lists Fury as a 6-1 favorite to beat Whyte.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
