Heavyweight Dillian “The Body Snatcher” Whyte (27-2, 18 KOs) has been forced to wait patiently for his revenge match with WBC interim heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KOs).
The two were set to meet in November but Povetkin tested positive for coronavirus ahead of that date and it had to be postponed. Their second clash was then supposed to usher in the new year of boxing but, at the start of January, the sport was suspended amid the growing coronavirus cases in the UK, but the 32-year-old says the delays have given him more time to make the necessary adjustments in order to get the win this weekend. The fight takes place Saturday at the Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar on DAZN.
In their first fight last August, Whyte seemed well on his way toward victory. He floored Povetkin twice in the fourth round, only to suffer a dramatic one-punch knockout defeat in the following stanza.
“This time I’ll beat him, and we’ll see what people are going to say.” said Whyte. “One, two or three losses means nothing to a heavyweight nowadays. If you fight good fighters, the main thing is you can come back. This is a must-win fight for me, but I’m not a guy that worries about pressure. I just smile and take it in my stride.
“I was a fighter a long time before I was a boxer. I’ve been knocking people out for a long time. I carry a lot of power in both hands. Povetkin is a very cagey guy and an experienced guy, a very patient guy. He’s a tough guy as well. Last time I didn’t land properly and he went down, but he showed resilience by getting up and then he stopped me. This time when I hit him he’ll stay down.
“I’m a very adaptable kind of guy, I’ll do what I need to do to get the win. I don’t care if I’ve got to rough a guy up or outbox them. I’ll do whatever it takes for me to win. It’s the biggest fight of my career. I’m coming off a loss to the guy. The good thing is this is heavyweight boxing. One fight changes everything.
“It’s a fight man. You don’t know how you’re going to feel on the day. You don’t know what’s going to happen and you don’t know how the other guy is going to come. As long as I’m able to adapt on the day, that’s all that matters.
“I don’t care if I have to throw two jabs and move or get in and throw power punches and rough him up. I’ll do whatever I have to do. I’m not worried about a career-best performance, I’m worried about getting the win. My mindset is I’ve got a job to do and I’ll do whatever I need to do to get it done.
“I’m still young and I’ve got loads of fights left in my career God willing. I can worry about looking good in another fight. This is about winning. When I touch him this time his whole body is going to vibrate, he’ll understand. I’m coming to do what I do best and that’s to inflict pain. If I’ve got to make it a dog fight then I’ll make it a dog fight. It will be a different story this time.”
a rematch clause in a non title and not that big of a fight…. ridiculous. No thanks
Big fight really. If you don’t consider this fight interesting in the HW division, there can’t be many that you do.
Titles??? People actually still care about meaningless titles? I could care less who the “champ” is. I tune in to see good fights and solid matchups. This right here is a good fight and a solid matchup.
If Whyte wants to win, he must establish that jab and keep the distance off the ropes in the center of the ring to rack up points. Povektin has much experience in his game and knows to cut Whyte off and set up his right hand. I do favor Povektin to win this rematch by a few points.
Maybe you right Scooby, but I see Whyte rushing to prove himself right and the vast experienced Povetkin taking advantage of Whyte’s desperation to finish him
Very good point!
Anything can happen in a fight especially a heavyweight fight. Whyte does have a chance to win but Povetkin has a chance to end it…
Both men have the tools to hurt each other, that has been seen before, but White’s chin seems to be brittler and if that was the difference in the previous fight, that could be again this time.
For those of us that actually watched the fight and paid attention, they can see that Povetkin wasn’t hurt badly by the shots that put him down. One of the knockdowns saw him up right away and ready to fight. The Russian was winning the fight other than the knockdowns that Whyte landed, so the Russian was going to win the fight anyway even if he hadn’t turned Whytes light switch off. Smart money will be on Povetkin for another win, unless the long layoff at his age causes him not to show up. This is actually a fight bettors can make money on with these odds.
Can Whyte bust Povetkin up before gets a chance to close the gap and touch Whyte’s chin? Whyte looked so great against a hulking big sloth like Lucas Browne.
Povetkin will win ko him out again
If Whyte wins then surely they do a 3rd fight, otherwise Hearn is just playing favorites. Povetkin deserves that much considering he literally turned his lights out with one punch, something AJ couldnt do, and neither could Klitschko.
It will be a shame if whyte loses again due to the fact of the high quality opposition he faced without fighting for the world championship, though he was interim champion!!!