By Shaun Brown

Dillian Whyte (24-1, 17 KOs) told BoxingScene.com he is aiming to fight again in mid-December.

The WBC Silver champion and number one contender cemented his status as one of the world’s best with a 12-round unanimous decision over former WBO champion Joseph Parker on Saturday night in London.

The fight, which saw Parker hit the canvas twice (once questionably) and Whyte once, was a roughhouse affair with the Brit doing whatever it took to impose his style on the Samoan-New Zealander. Whyte is now a strong contender to face unified champion Anthony Joshua next year in a rematch of their 2015 British and Commonwealth title affair.

In the meantime, someone must be found to fill the gap before Whyte’s inevitable world title opportunity.

“I’d like to fight the likes of Manuel Charr,” Whyte told ‘Scene. Charr, the WBA’s secondary world champion defends his title for the first time against Fres Oquendo on September 29 in Germany.

“Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua are going to be tied up, so Manuel Charr is the kind of opponent I’d be looking at which would be great. Get that fight, it’s a big fight.”

Discussing his own performance against Parker, the Mark Tibbs trained heavyweight said he knew he was in for a tricky time against the 26-year-old who opted to box early on. From round five Whyte’s streetwise tactics forced Parker into fighting fire with fire which saw him fade before a near sensational turnaround in the final two rounds that almost saw Whyte stopped.

“I’m a tough, resilient man. It takes a lot to put me away,” said Whyte.

“But this is boxing, you get hit with punches and you have to show heart. The heart’s never been a problem for me, I’ve showed it my whole career. Just need to tighten up on little technical bits and get in better shape.

“I’m still relatively inexperienced and still have a lot more to learn. There’s a lot more to come. I’m getting a lot, lot better.”

Saturday night’s card at the O2 Arena, a show full of highlight reel drama, was Whyte’s first as a pay-per-view headliner. Whyte said he knew he was capable of delivering against one of the best but just needed the right stage to do so. The better the opponent, the better version of Whyte shows up he believes.

“Big fights bring a big performance. On these big stages, these big fights, everything is at stake. You have to make decisions. I’m going to do whatever it takes and that’s why it’s important for me to keep having these big fights. World titles or not, they have to be big fights.

“I fought a guy who was a world champion not that long ago and I had to dig deep and rightly so. It was a good fight. These are the kind of fights you need in the lead up to world title fights and I answered all the questions.

“I took the fight to him. You can’t give a good boxer the range and the ground they need. Take the fight to him, take the fight away, get dirty, get messy and rough him up a bit. I’m the bigger, stronger man in there so I used that against him.”

While Whyte may not be in attendance for Charr against Oquendo he did tell ‘Scene that will be at Wembley Stadium on September 22 for Anthony Joshua against Alexander Povetkin.

“I’ll keep an eye on him (Joshua). I’ll be keeping a very close eye on him against Alexander Povetkin,” said Whyte who predicted a Joshua stoppage between rounds 8 and 10.

The heavyweight division has taken up some more column inches since Whyte’s win over Parker. News broke on Monday that a deal is close to being done for Tyson Fury to challenge WBC champion Deontay Wilder in December. Whyte, however, is sceptical.

“Listen, Tyson Fury is talking a fight with Wilder but talking and doing are two different things. In boxing I’ve met a lot of people that talk and say this and say that, let’s see what happens. Tyson Fury was struggling against Sefer Seferi, how is he going to fight Deontay Wilder? Unless he’s going for a pay out to get laid out. He’s about 4-5 fights away from those type of fights.”

Twitter @sbrown2pt0