Of course, I'm arguing that those contracts and the rankings system are ILLOGICAL from a pure sporting perspective. I understand from a business perspective as things stand, my sporting logic is irrelevant. If the rankings were logical, and rematches were decided on sporting merit, Whyte would have to face Parker, Povetkin would have to face Hunter.
Whyte doesn't have much of a choice in the rematch with Povetkin. The wbc definitely won't wait for him. He already lost against Joshua and had to build himself up. There's no excuses this time, the opportunity won't come up again. I don't think Whyte has improved enough from his first loss to beat someone like Povetkin. Still looks like the same fighter that the bodybuilder pummeled years ago. Maybe Dillian will shock us, and come in ultra light. That would be something that he could improve on next time round, more athletism to evade those hooks....
I think he clearly has improved enough and has the tools to do the job on this version of Povetkin, he proved that by sitting him on his arse twice and seemed only a short time away from getting the job done. He got caught with a bomb of a shot "against the run of play" so to speak. I would be backing Dillian to get the win in the rematch the only thing that concerns me is it being so very soon.... perhaps too soon. He deserves credit for the way he's took the loss. Zero excuses and more or less straight back in the gym looking to improve. Good on him.
So, "Interim champion" is basically the same as mandatory, except if you beat the interim champion in the ring you have to rematch and beat the same guy again to go for the real title ? It seems inevitable that the four major belts (WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO) are going to splinter completely because there are going to be loads of contenders who can't even get a shot at the 'interim' versions at this rate.
Apparently Whyte got straight back up and heard the ref count to 7. The ref never counted! That ko was very very heavy clearly
Hope he comes back and there is another poster missing since the Whyte KO who was very pro Matchroom and anti anything Frank or Fury related. Perhaps they have run off together to start a new life on the General Forum.
The way I saw the Povetkin fight was that it was two rusty fighters, one ageing. One was knocked down twice but got up easily enough and didn't seem affected, the other got put down once and with it he was put to sleep. Whyte might have scored two knockdowns but I don't think he was on the way to finishing the job, Povetkin is a very tough man.
Was a little of both, really. Whyte certainly seemed more in control of the fight, especially after the two KD’s. But you’re also right in that Povetkin was setting up that shot from early on too
100% but apparently the fact that Whyte got 2 KD before getting KTFO means he actually won the fight.
Povetkin being on the floor twice early on just underlines the fact that Whyte was KO'd by a shot old man. Yeah, Whyte should win the rematch. He should beat a shot old man. But then again, that was true before the first fight, so who knows.
