I'm glad the Arreola fight didn't happen, this is a far more interesting option. I think Wallin will have his moments but in the end won't do enough to win.
Chisora is one frame of reference for this bout. Fury schooled, dominated and retired Chisora in 10 back in 2014, whereas Whyte went life and death with an older, more worn Chisora in 2016 and 2018, with both of these fights hinging on controversial officiating. Wallin did vastly better than Chisora against Fury and was doing better even before the cuts, though Fury underestimated Wallin thinking he was another Tom Schwarz and also came in overtrained/underweight, while Wallin may have been especially motivated due to the recent death of his father. However, Wallin had only fought 1 round over almost 18 months when he fought Fury, whereas Wallin fought 12 rounds 8 months ago and has fought 28 full rounds in the last 2 years. Wallin will be virtually 31 when he faces Whyte and is considerably more experienced and confident than he was pre-Fury, with 12 rounds against Fury (losing anything between 10-2 and 7-5) stopping an old, injury prone Kauffman in 5 and schooling an inactive Breazeale 10-2 with 232 punches landed to 91. Another frame of reference is Breazeale, who AJ dominated 166-38 in punches landed and stopped in 7 rounds. AJ also took Whyte out in 7 but Whyte hurt AJ badly and won 2 rounds. Whyte is 33.5 now which isn't too old by any means but he's picked up a lot of wear and tear and his chin hasn't been tested since Povetkin 1 14 months ago, when he got brutally KO'd in his own backyard. Whyte hasn't faced a live opponent for over 2 years since bridgerweight Rivas in Britain, which was a highly competitive war. Home advantage is important to bear in mind: refereeing, judging, crowd, drug testing, ring size, canvas density etc. will all favour Whyte and Hearn will be desperate for Whyte to win to pump up AJ's failing resume, put Matchroom back on course and strengthen Whyte’s WBC mandatory claim. I'm sure there will be a rematch clause, though if Whyte loses to Wallin just two fights removed from his defeat to shot 41 year old Povetkin it might well be game over for him: there is far more pressure on Whyte to win than Wallin, with the latter having little to lose and much to gain. There is also far less film of Wallin to study. Some claim that Whyte struggles with taller heavyweights which would disadvantage him against Wallin but I'm not sure if this is the case because Whyte struggles with any heavyweight of any decent quality. Wallin is at least two inches taller, is the better athlete, has superior amateur pedigree, has a better chin, has the better corner, is more intelligent, more disciplined, more motivated (less money, less fame, less success) younger, has far less wear and tear, fewer defeats, never been KO’d or KD’d as a pro (Whyte x2 and x4) and southpaw advantage (Whyte fought one low level southpaw journeyman 7 years ago, has never fought a southpaw of any note and only has 4.5-6 weeks to prepare for a good southpaw in Wallin). Both are skilled boxers, rough and mentally tough. Whyte has more pro experience, is the much bigger puncher (though Whyte may well underestimate Wallin’s power) and has home/A-side advantages. Whyte will want to make a statement to Fury by stopping Wallin but this could play into Wallin’s hands. It’s a real banana skin fight for Whyte, especially since Whyte-conqueror AJ has just lost conclusively to European southpaw Usyk, which has piled the pressure on Whyte and will give European southpaw Wallin even more confidence. I favour Wallin to get the better of Whyte, though he will find it hard to get the decision in Britain.
So much better than 40 year old Arreola. Wallin clearly lost vs Fury but cut him and hurt him in the 12th, giving a pretty good account of himself for being an unknown and being brought in to hype Fury for a Wilder payday. I seem to remember his cardio wasn't the best in that fight but he did bounce back beating Kauffman and Breazeale in his last 2 fights, and he has Gamache as a trainer. Looking forward to it.
According to compubox, he's also known as the man who has landed the most punches on Fury. Outlanding two long reigning world champions isn't bad going This is so much better than Arreola. I will actually part with money for this one.
Yeah most likely, he was picked because he is not a big puncher so Whyte's glass jaw should be safe to go the distance.
Without a doubt. He obviously truly cares about his legacy and the old school tradition of taking touch challenges. This is exactly why I like watching him. Tough ******* with guts.
When he stops pricing himself out of one and he as ran out of average opponents to fight on PPV. Whyte could have fought AJ a number of times and he has turned it down a number of times, last time because he said the money wasn't good enough. This is Whytes problem, he could have fought AJ and earned say... 8 million and he would have probably lost and lost badly. but if Whyte lost to AJ and lost badly then he is at the back of the queue, he can't expect PPV dates, he isn't a world champion, never been one and he would have been a hard sell. So Whyte has chosen to fight fringe top 10 fighters for 2-3 million a time on PPV, fights he was odds on favourite in and he is still in the mix for a title shot, so business wise he has done the right thing I suppose. Also, Hearn pushed Whyte in a certain direction, he used Whyte in the Wilder Vs AJ negotiations, Hearn wanted to corner all the belts, Hearn was also hoping Whyte would be in a position to pinch the WBC belt if the opportunity arose, this was before Fury came back and took over, so now it's a little more difficult.
You have to hand it to Whyte. He's actually making fights happen. Most fighters would sit on their butt or take on absolute cans while waiting for their title shot.