Now Whyte wants Wilder
THe fighter can be forgiven for the extravagance of his celebrations after he clambered over a human punch bag into contention for a shot at the world heavyweight title.
The promoter, likewise, has a job to do in marketing to the maximum the exploits of his men in gloves.
But, amid all the hyperbole of Saturday night at the half-full O2 Arena, came the nugget of reality as Dillian Whyte and eddie Hearn each put this occasion into perspective with these same three words: ‘Boxing is business.’
By beating seven mediocre opponents since he was flattened by Anthony Joshua, the so-called ‘Body Snatcher of Brixton’ has come back to a position as No 1 contender for the WBC belt held by America’s Deontay Wilder.
By shrewd matchmaking, the head of boxing for Matchroom Sport has manoeuvred to within one step of delivering on his promise of a mega-bucks fight for the second string in his heavyweight portfolio.
Quite when that will happen is unclear, since Joshua needs to add Joseph Parker’s WBO title to his WBA, IBF and fringe IBO belts in Cardiff on Saturday and then go on to defeat Wilder if he is to fulfil his dream of becoming the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis.
In his delight at beating the lumbering Lucas Browne to a bloody pulp with the most rounded performance of his career, Whyte declared himself eager to take on either Wilder or Joshua.
But although Whyte talked of him and Joshua sharing ‘chemistry a bit like lovers which could see us fighting each other three or four times’, he and Hearn know that this is Joshua’s call. In boxing’s marquee division any fight can be transformed by one punch and Joshua will be wary of Wilder walking on to a big shot from someone else before he gets his lucrative chance of taking America by storm.
It was the faint hope of such a one-hit miracle which kept Browne going through almost six rounds of excruciating punishment, before the last left hook in a vicious bombardment sent him to the floor and on to hospital.
Thus we are little closer to knowing if Whyte is capable of upsetting either Joshua or Wilder.
The notion was put that Whyte will have sent such shockwaves through America with what Hearn described as ‘a showreel knockout’ and that the WBC will be moved to mandate an immediate fight with Wilder. But the haplessness of Whyte’s victim will weigh as heavily on such deliberations as Browne’s static 18 stones.