Whyte Wants To Shut Up Chisora: I'll Definitely KO Him This Time
By Keith Idec
Dillian Whyte wasn’t obligated to fight Dereck Chisora again.
In fact, the timing of their rematch December 22 is extremely risky for Whyte because he is Eddie Hearn’s front-runner to challenge Anthony Joshua on April 13 at Wembley Stadium in London. That didn’t prevent Whyte from embracing their rematch because he is completely confident he’ll knock out his British rival when they fight again at O2 Arena in London.
“I’m very, very excited,” Whyte said. “I’m in this game to give the fans proper fights. I’m not in this game to hide and fight journeymen, and fight nobodies. I wanna give the fans nights they remember 50 years after I’m done. And this is one of them. You know, obviously, me and Dereck’s got the right chemistry to get it done, so here we are.”
Chisora insists he beat Whyte in December 2016, when Whyte won a split decision over him in an all-action, 12-round brawl that received serious consideration for “Fight of the Year.” Whyte (24-1, 17 KOs) has grown tired of hearing Chisora complain about that decision and can’t wait to settle their score once and for all in a Sky Sports Box Office main event.
“And I wanna shut him up,” Whyte said. “You know what I mean? The last fight was a good fight. I won by three rounds. He thought it was close, but this time I’m definitely gonna knock him out. Last time, he said he was gonna knock me out and he was gonna do this and he was gonna do that. But, you know, he tried his best and it wasn’t good enough.”
The 30-year-old Whyte won their 12-rounder on two scorecards (115-113, 115-114). One judge scored their fantastic fight at Manchester Arena for the 34-year-old Chisora (115-114).
Whyte is 4-0 since he faced Chisora (29-8, 21 KOs), including back-to-back victories over former heavyweight title-holders Lucas Browne and Joseph Parker.
The Jamaican-born contender battered Browne (26-1, 23 KOs) before knocking out the Australian contender in the sixth round March 24 at O2 Arena. Four months later, Whyte withstood serious trouble during the 12th round and out-pointed New Zealand’s Parker (24-2, 18 KOs) by unanimous decision, also at O2 Arena.
Zimbabwe’s Chisora is 3-1 since losing to Whyte. He dropped a majority decision to Germany’s Agit Kabayel (18-0, 13 KOs) last November 4 in Monte Carlo, but bounced back to stop Cameroon’s Carlos Takam (35-5-1, 27 KOs) in the eighth round on the Whyte-Parker undercard July 28 in London.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
