While Anthony Joshua is in the dressing room on December 10 preparing for his IBF World Heavyweight title defence against Eric Molina, two more British boxers will be dreaming of also becoming a World Champion. British Heavyweight Champion Dillian Whyte defends his belt against former title holder Dereck Chisora with the winner in line for a shot at Deontay Wilder (below).
“Deontay Wilder” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by laytondudley
You wouldn’t excuse Whyte if he looked at the all the hype for Joshua’s second defence of his title with envious eyes. His only professional loss was to Joshua almost exactly a year ago but now he has the chance to further rebuild his career.
Many will rightfully say that Whyte gave Joshua the toughest fight of his career and there were times when it looked as he could have ended the future IBF Champion’s unbeaten record. Since that loss, Whyte has had to dust himself off and start all over again while watching Joshua’s star rise and rise. He’s been extremely vocal about wanting a return bout with Joshua but he still has a few steps up the ladder to climb before it could become a possibility, it all depends how long Joshua has to wait for Wladimir Klitschko to sign a contract.
Whyte waited six months before making his in-ring comeback, by which time Joshua had become World Champion. He returned with an inside the distance win over Ivica Bacurin and a month later outpointed David Allen to become WBC International Heavyweight Champion.
Title Glory
October saw him defeat Ian Lewison in a fight for the vacant British Heavyweight title. The last two holders of that title have gone on to become World Heavyweight Champion, can he make it a hat-trick? It would be easy for him to go down the route of trying to get a rematch with Joshua for the IBF belt and perhaps if he’d had some more high profile wins, he could have been considered to be taking on Joshua for a second December in a row rather than Molina.
Instead, Whyte has his sights set on WBC title holder Deontay Wilder, but first he must get past former British Champion Dereck Chisora at the Manchester Arena. It’s a good test for the current title holder and at the time of writing he’s 4/9 at Betway.be to keep his title. A win over Chisora won’t do his world title hopes any harm at all. Whyte knows how to get his fights in the news and has already stirred up his opponent by calling him a bully.
Last Chance Saloon for Chisora
Chisora last won this title in 2010 and a lot of water and controversy has gone under the bridge since then, that is for sure. It’s two years since he lost a terrible fight against Tyson Fury. He went into that fight as European Champion and the vacant British title (it does get vacated a fair bit, doesn’t it?) was also on the line.
With a poor performance that night, many questioned whether he could get back into world title contention again. He returned seven months later and squeezed in four wins against average opposition before the end of the year to keep his career alive. One more win followed before challenging Kubrat Pulev for the European title he once held and lost a split decision.
He’s not one to give up though is Chisora. The globetrotter headed to Sweden to knock out Drazan Janjan in a couple of rounds and now he has another chance to get back into the world title picture four years after that controversial weekend in Germany when he lost on points to Vitali Klitschko.
Whyte is obviously the boxer on the up even though he still lacks a win over a highly ranked opponent. He showed against Joshua last year that he has got a chance of success against most heavyweights. Whether he can step up to world class and get a title isn’t known yet. Chisora is a decent name to get on his record and perhaps a European title challenge would further boost his hopes of getting Wilder or even Joshua in the ring sometime in 2017.
