Whyte is in great physical shape, is an upset possible?

Against bums. So did Wilder.

 

It is hard to judge a fighter by the shape he or she appears to be in, especially when past prime. There are a lot of ways to look in terrific shape, some good for the ring and some not. (I suspect Dillian Whyte is the latter). I expect Moses Itauma to win this, but I have been wrong before.

 

Best example -- Mike Tyson in his fight against Jake Paul. Looked like he could have walked on stage at an amateur bodybuilding competition (senior division) and won. All it proved was that: 1. he was still physically capable of lifting weights, 2. he had strict discipline over his diet, 3. he was on all the steroids, and 4. he's an excellent responder to steroids (not exactly surprising given his genes). Because come fight night, he couldn't do anything. I think the fat out of shape looking Holmes of the Butterbean fight could have knocked out the Tyson of the Paul fight, yet when looking at the two side by side, one would get the opposite impression.

 

This is an excellent point about Davidson; he really isn't a top-level trainer. The longer Itauma stays with him, the inevitable problems that often stem from Davidson's lack of plan B will surface.

If Whyte had a better chin, I would honestly give him a good chance to pull off an upset, but he's been knocked out by glancing shots, dropped by cruiserweights-- and in his last fight, he was garbage. Even still, I think he's going to do better than people initially thought, but he will walk into a highlight reel knockout shot because he squares his feet too much. He's coming up against a young fighter who has an incredible natural skill set, Whyte is too crude.

 

Just rewatched the fight with Tetteh. Whyte actually had surprisingly good upper body movement and was throwing some decent combinations. This despite the fact he was overweight and looked like he hadn't put much work into training.

I have a feeling Itauma's team think Whyte is more shot than he is.

Still think Itauma wins, but after a tougher fight than expected.

... then again Itauma has the worst trainer in boxing so I'm sure they'll find some way to screw it up.

 

My first two paragraphs summised the situation.

Furthermore, Itauma has a SIGNIFICANT hand speed advantage over his opponents which makes it very difficult to big, slow and ponderous guys to overcome.

Whyte looked like a completely shot fighter in there. His body couldnt do what it's brain was telling it to do

No amount of sparring would have been able to replicate what Itauma brought to the ring for Whyte.