A shoulder injury has forced Dillian Whyte to cancel his WBC interim heavyweight world title defense against Sweden’s Otto Wallin scheduled for The O2 in London on October 30.
The event, shown live worldwide on DAZN, will continue as planned with Chantelle Cameron’s (14-0, 8 KOs) WBC, IBF female super lightweight unification clash with Mary McGee (27-3, 15 KOs) now topping the bill.
Elsewhere on the card, ‘The Savage’ Alen Babic (8-0, 8 KOs) clashes with two-time world title challenger Eric Molina (28-7, 20 KOs) over eight rounds, Craig Richards (16-2-1, 9 KOs) returns to the ring against Poland’s Marek Matyja (20-2-2, 9 KOs) after pushing WBA light-heavyweight world champion Dmitry Bivol all the way in May, Youssef Khoumari (13-0-1, 5 KOs) takes on Jorge David Castaneda (14-1, 11 KOs) for the vacant WBC International silver super-featherweight title, ‘The Romford Bull’ Johnny Fisher (3-0, 3 KOs) faces Spain’s Alvaro Terrero (5-13-2, 3 KOs) in front of over 1,000 of his fans, Catford super-bantamweight Ellie Scotney (2-0) squares off against Eva Cantos (2-1) in her first fight with new trainer Shane McGuigan, Manchester cruiserweight Jordan Thompson (10-0, 8 KOs) makes his Matchroom debut against Poland’s Piotr Podlucki (6-5, 2 KOs), Takeley light-heavyweight prospect John Hedges (3-0) meets Antony Woolery (2-7) over four rounds and Dublin Heavyweight Thomas Carty (1-0) has his second professional fight.
“I am devastated as I had a great camp, was in great shape, and had great sparring,” said Whyte. “I was looking forward to knocking Wallin out and would have done so in the first half of the fight.
“I am devastated about not being able to fight on October 30 but I want to thank everyone for all of their support.”
Dillian Whyte’s Physician, and leading Sports & Exercise Medicine Consultant, Dr Harjinder Singh, said: “Dillian sustained a shoulder injury during training in preparation for his planned fight on October 30 2021, which I have assessed and confirmed with diagnostic imaging.
“I have treated the injury, but the injury will unfortunately prevent him from fighting on October 30 2021. With immediate rest, physiotherapy and rehabilitation there should be no enduring concerns.”
“Dillian carried this injury for the last couple of weeks but it worsened in sparring on Monday night and it was impossible for him to continue,” said Matchroom Sport Chairman Eddie Hearn. “It’s a huge shame because Dillian had a great camp before the injury and was ready to go. The show will continue on October 30 without Dillian and we wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back in the ring very soon.”
Too bad Babic is a bridgerweight. I would love to see Babic step up and kick Wallin’s ass. To be honest, Babic is not ready for that level of competition.
Speaketh … FJB.
Fredrick J. Brandon III.
Can’t they get a substitute to step in for Whyte so Wallin can fight? Joe Tba should be available.
@Hotel Dixie Boxing Forum: 100% agree. There will be a line of HWs ready to step in.
It would be good fight captain lol Albano vs walli ‘ two eye rakers going at it.
Disappointing. I was hoping that one would come off. To be honest, aside from Fury-Wilder 2 , it’s been a tough year for us, TRUE FANS. I have a feeling the Crawford- Porter fight will be a classic scrap. Those styles will mesh perfectly. Hopefully it comes off.
Oops. Sorry fun police. I MEANT FURY VS WILDER 3!! KO 11!!!
Please forgive me my children!!
So, the “interim champion,” who ostensibly holds that title because of an inability on the part of the WBC champion to defend that title (which he has within the past two weeks), is himself now unable to defend that title.
Is anyone else bemused by this nonsense? By all rights, the WBC should strip Whyte of the “interim” title, no?
Whyte the hype is running scared no doubt. Wallin should now allowed to directly fight Fury as the winner would have been able to. He will put up a good fight but will not win.
Whyte should be made “interim champion in recess.” Let Wallin fight someone else for the “interim” version of interim belt.
in the USA , nobody really cares about this fight. especially me.. but…
I don’t see this fight happening.
They should been on the undercard of Fury vs Wilder 3 as well. Not much interest in seeing those 2 as a main event unless it was on espn or abc
They should fight for the Albertsons supermarket sweepstakes belt
Whyte is not world class, I hope Tyson don’t give him a payday because he doesn’t deserve it! Ruiz, fury, wilder, AJ, maybe even helenius; I think he goes to sleep in with any of those fighters.
Must say Whyte looked in great shape in the pictures shown. Pity. But there should be someone stepping in the replace Whyte and Wallin still gets to fight. Would be very interesting to see how good he still is. That Fury fight 2 y ago still makes a person think.