I don't know about that. Even before the Whyte/Povetkin rematch his standing as mandatory was hardly concrete, the WBC were talking about making a final eliminator between Wilder and Whyte, if Whyte beat Povetkin. Whyte's status as mandatory is like Schrodinger's Cat, he seems to exists in both states as the officially mandatory or not the official mandatory at the same time, depending on the whim of the WBC. Hence why Whyte was forced to take legal action. Even if he hadn't taken legal action there's no guarantee he would of gotten a shot, he probably would of been ordered to fight Wilder and even if he won, they would of probably found a way to keep pushing it back. I mean how long was Eleider Alvarez WBC mandatory for Stevenson? 4 years? Stevenson had his first mandatory defence vs Bellew in late 2013 and didn't face another mandatory until he lost to Gvozdyk some 5 years later. The WBC even did an investigation into why Stevenson hadn't had a mandatory defence in years and then ordered he fight Alvarez only for Stevenson to pay step aside money and Alvarez instead fought Kovalev and beat him.
I wonder why someone wouldn't be bothered with ya, when you sue and openly slate them often.. Weird that isnt it.
I am not here to defend the WBC even though their belt is a great and historic belt which all the fighters want to hold. I am just saying Whyte’s team have not handled this well at all.
The Povetkin fight happened after Wilder had already lost the belt. So I'm curious what this evidence was at the time of Wilder's reign. The evidence shows that Wilder wanted nothing to do with dangerous fighters in their prime. Unlike Ortiz, Whyte was in his prime and had a track record of beating other top contenders. Not in his 40s on heart meds, dining out on a single win years prior. Unlike Fury in fight 1, Whyte wasn't coming off being 400lbs, and two years of inactivity and putting his body through the ringer. And Whyte can actually switch your lights off with one punch. The first time Wilder fought a title defence against someone close to prime and within the top 10, it wasn't by choice and he lost...Fury v Wilder 2. Whilst, I'm not saying it was a guaranteed win for Whyte. I am saying it was a risk Wilder's team wasn't willing to take. And Wilder openly told Whyte he wouldn't have to fight him (alluding to the backing of the WBC letting him choose his opponents as he pleased). i.e. the WBC protected him
You could read that as the WBC preventing Whyte from getting a 3rd knockout loss because it’s pretty clear he can’t withstand Wilder’s power.
Only if you can't read. Whyte had only lost once, to Joshua And it's pretty clear you're trying to defend the indefensible. i.e. the WBC's protection of Wilder with his two hand picked mandatories. Strange, your posts seem to be defending their actions and blaming Whyte for standing up to their corruption.
Then he got sparked by an old shot Povetkin who could hardly stand in his legs. To be honest this was shocking and he had been floored heavily by Parker and Rivas. All I am saying is that Whyte can be knocked out and facing a supposedly devastating puncher like Wilder probably won’t end well for him. I don’t think there is anything controversial in that assessment.
Had an undefeated Wilder fought Whyte instead of Ortiz for a second time, Wilder would have been a massive favourite and he's still a solid favourite now coming off back to back brutal KO defeats to Fury at 36+, so those who determine odds for a living believe there was strong evidence why the overwhelmingly likely outcome was Whyte getting starched. Heart meds can be used to mask PED use and Ortiz was better at 39 than Whyte at 30. Whyte "Beating top contenders" is very misleading: Whyte always had to lean on officials (either the referee, judges or drug testing) to get the win whenever he fought a Chisora, a Parker or a Rivas. All of these fights were life and death and he was dropped twice, once by Parker, who drops no one half decent. Whyte's best uncontroversial wins are decisions over late substitutes Helenius, Wach and Dave Allen. He has 1 KO and 4 KD's against his top 8 opponents and two of the KD's were against the shot 41 year old Povetkin who starched him, so if Whyte has genuine KO power then he can only deliver it once in a blue moon. Fury was out of shape and coming off two tune-up fights but the bookies regarded it as a virtual 50-50 with only a slight edge for Wilder; Fury was regarded as a much harder opponent than Whyte even then. Wilder-Fury 2 was a fight Wilder had been looking for, the WBC made Fury mandatory and they fought soon after, with Wilder pursuing a rematch again against the No.1 ranked HW. His six fights since 2018 have been Ortiz, Fury, Breazeale (mandatory) Ortiz, Fury, Fury: the toughest series of opponents in boxing over that period. Whyte would have been the 4th or 5th toughest opponent of that group, Wilder had bigger fish to fry. Plus he clearly dislikes Whyte so he wouldn't want to give him the payday or the opportunity. Whyte can hardly complain about ducking when he's a ducker himself, made clear again recently when he ducked "bum" Otto Wallin.
