Dillian Whyte on verge of following Tyson Fury onto ESPN's books in bid to break America

[Enlightened-One]

"Dillian Whyte on verge of following Tyson Fury onto ESPN's books in bid to break America" (Source: The Telegraph)

Dillian Whyte could be on the verge of following Tyson Fury onto the books of ESPN and promoter Bob Arum's Top Rank, according to sources here in America.

Whyte, the British heavyweight who turned down a potential £5 million fight with Anthony Joshua at Wembley on April 13, is reportedly close to signing a lucrative, multi-fight contract.

Whyte will be following in the footsteps of Fury who has signed with the broadcaster and promoter in the US, while his alliance with allegedly and BT Sport remains in the UK. Whyte was promoted in his rise to a Box Office fighter in the UK by Eddie Hearn.

Fury, regarded as the lineal heavyweight champion, is expected to make his Top Rank/ESPN debut in the USA in either June or July. His opponent has not yet been announced and it may even be Whyte himself, who had gone nine fights unbeaten, including five knockouts, since Joshua defeated him in London three years ago.

Whyte is known to have had meetings with ESPN, Showtime, DAZN and Al Haymon on a trip to the USA last month.

Keith Idec, of BS.com, reported this morning here in the States that "an official announcement of Whyte’s deal with Top Rank and ESPN will be made once his contract is finalised".

Thoughts?

[joshj909]

A few things. Firstly, I don't see Whyte being anywhere near as popular over in the US as he currently is in the UK. It takes a while to build a reputation an fanbase and his is probably bigger than it should be anyway.

Secondly, unless he's facing Pulev or Fury, he's not going to get better fights on ESPN as he would at Matchroom as it's PBC who have a number of remaining ranked heavies, not Top Rank.

Finally, If he is going to Top Rank for their connection with the WBO for that title shot, it has some hurdles. He could face Schwarz (#2) at any promotion and apply for it to be an eliminator. If he's doing this to make Whyte v Fury for a WBO eliminator then he would've made more money as the voluntary that AJ just offered him because of splits. Also, the WBO stated that Usyk could get the mandatory after a year or so after going up a division. Although the WBO mandatory is due to be called, unifications and other mandatories could prolong this and Usyk could take that shot.

Missed anything? ;)

[Enlightened-One]

A few things. Firstly, I don't see Whyte being anywhere near as popular over in the US as he currently is in the UK. It takes a while to build a reputation an fanbase and his is probably bigger than it should be anyway.

Secondly, unless he's facing Pulev or Fury, he's not going to get better fights on ESPN as he would at Matchroom as it's PBC who have a number of remaining ranked heavies, not Top Rank.

Finally, If he is going to Top Rank for their connection with the WBO for that title shot, it has some hurdles. He could face Schwarz (#2) at any promotion and apply for it to be an eliminator. If he's doing this to make Whyte v Fury for a WBO eliminator then he would've made more money as the voluntary that AJ just offered him because of splits. Also, the WBO stated that Usyk could get the mandatory after a year or so after going up a division. Although the WBO mandatory is due to be called, unifications and other mandatories could prolong this and Usyk could take that shot.

Missed anything? ;)

I agree with almost everything you’ve written.

However, I think Bob Arum’s alleged move for Dillian Whyte is more about building a stable of fighters for Top Rank and ESPN. This is only the beginning of this process.

He’s hoping to build a heavyweight roster by tying as many free agents as possible to exclusive deals with Top Rank.

The vast majority of PBC fighters don’t have promotional contracts and nor do they have TV network deals. This was clearly evident when Deontay Wilder claimed that he was a free agent, which led to ESPN and Top Rank making an offer to him that was subsequently rejected. I won’t be surprised if Arum submits another improved/revised offer in the near future.

In fact, Dillian Whyte’s previous deal with Matchroom and Sky has only ever been on a fight-by-fight basis. This applies to the majority of the guys Eddie Hearn works with - the exceptions to this rule tend to only have two or three fight contracts that can be bought out.

Bob Arum’s plans still seem ambitious to me, because even though a lot of heavyweights are technically-speaking “free agents”, most of them will inevitably choose to remain loyal to Al Haymon and Eddie Hearn.

[joshj909]

I agree with almost everything you’ve written.

However, I think Bob Arum’s alleged move for Dillian Whyte is more about building a stable of fighters for Top Rank and ESPN.

He’s hoping to build a heavyweight roster by tying as many free agents as possible to exclusive deals with Top Rank.

The vast majority of PBC fighters don’t have promotional contracts and nor do they have TV network deals. This was clearly evident when Deontay Wilder claimed that he was a free agent, which led to ESPN and Top Rank making an offer to him that was subsequently rejected. I won’t be surprised if Arum submits another improved/revised offer in the near future.

In fact, Dillian Whyte’s previous deal with Matchroom and Sky has only ever been on a fight-by-fight basis. This applies to the majority of the guys Eddie Hearn works with - the exceptions to this rule tend to only have two or three fight contracts that can be bought out.

Bob Arum’s plans still seem ambitious to me, because even though a lot of heavyweights are technically-speaking “free agents”, most of them will inevitably choose to remain loyal to Al Haymon and Eddie Hearn.

In that case I hope his next offer to Wilder is accepted (it definitely won't be). Whyte, Fury and Wilder all at one promotion would be great.

[oogiebe]

[KiwiRider]

Whyte has done really well with Hearn. I doubt any other promoter would have been able to give him the sort of money and exposure he has earned in his last 3 fights.
Maybe he sees it as the end of the line for the money train.
Way I see it is, there isn't big money out there at HW unless you fight one of the big 3. And the biggest money is fighting AJ.
It will be interesting to see who he fights, and for how much, if he makes a change in promoter

[marvelous marv]

They offered Whyte 4 million to fight AJ, and then Miller got 6.9 million for the same fight. I would be upset with my promoter too.

[Enlightened-One]

They offered Whyte 4 million to fight AJ, and then Miller got 6.9 million for the same fight. I would be upset with my promoter too.

This is what I wrote seven weeks ago... and it seems that I've been proven right:

Eddie Hearn has just issued a warning of sorts (via Sky Sports) to Dillian Whyte, who is a promotional free agent, by claiming that if the 'The Bodysnatcher' rejects the current opportunity to face Anthony Joshua now, he may not receive another chance to face AJ for a very long time, as the expectation is for Oleksandr Usyk to automatically become the WBO’s mandatory challenger when the Ukraine eventually makes the jump to heavyweight.

The Matchroom boss’ argument is that Whyte should willingly compromise his current payday demands to capitalise on an opportunity to fight for a chance to capture the world heavyweight championship, with a view to becoming the A-side during negotiations for the rematch, if he somehow manages to dethrone Joshua.

The problem with what Eddie Hearn is saying though, relates to the fact that Whyte claims he’s being offered a smaller payday facing Anthony Joshua in a world title fight, than the purse he received for defeating Dereck Chisora in the rematch. As far as I'm concered, this claim hasn't been refuted.

The Matchroom boss is basically asking Dillian Whyte to provide his services on the cheap, for the opportunity to seek sporting glory. This isn’t an appropriate way to negotiate bouts.

I feel that Eddie Hearn has submitted a lowball offer to 'The Body Snatcher', hoping that he’ll reject it (solely for PR reasons, so he can claim Dillian turned down the opportunity), because a safer route to bide Joshua’s time, whilst waiting for a super-fight against the likes of Fury or Wilder to materialise, would be to face Jarrell Miller instead in the US.

[bury_lad]

Somebody get this man a badge

[Enlightened-One]

Somebody get this man a badge

Fair point, note taken. In my defence though, I did get criticised at the time for saying such things.

[oogiebe]

Somebody get this man a badge

Fair point, note taken. In my defence though, I did get criticised at the time for saying such things.

It's not what you say, it's how you say it. Your gold star is being shipped today.

[candyslim]

I'm surprised by this. I felt that Whyte didn't really want the Joshua fight at this time (ideally he brings 'Sophia' to the all UK unification for undisputed). He'd made very good money on UK PPV and if he were to lose to Joshua that might well be the end of his PPV career. Now if he burns his bridges with Hearn that's probably goodbye to nice lucrative PPV nights fighting the likes of Ortiz, Povetkin, Breazeale or Usyk. Unless of course he has Eddie's blessing and the door is left open.

Hearn probably did low-ball him. He represents one of the most dangerous opponents AJ could face. He had already got the KO win over him, and the UK boxing public were lukewarm about the prospect of Joshua v Whyte II. What would be the point of making a big offer to put Joshua in harm's way, when he probably wouldn't get a lot of credit for repeating the feat even if he achieved the best possible result? There's no shame in that: I don't suppose Dillian would be too enthusiastic about a rematch with Parker right now.

Instead AJ gets a huge payday, gets the opportunity to bring forward his US debut (which was always the plan further down the road) thus removing the jibe about him not being willing to fight outside the UK. Smart decision I reckon. If he'd have fought Kownacki in place of Miller it would be an even smarter decision.

[lillywhite14]

Whyte won’t crack America. Fury stands a better chance with his personality but unfortunately for him, he makes Lennox Lewis, who’s perceived caution in the ring meant the American market never really took to him in big numbers apparently, look like a cross between Harry Grebb and Roberto Duran. Needless to say, once he’s involved in what you might call a standard Tyson Fury fight, he’ll stink the place out.

Whyte? He simply isn’t good enough to get people interested over there.

[oogiebe]

Whyte won’t crack America. Fury stands a better chance with his personality but unfortunately for him, he makes Lennox Lewis, who’s perceived caution in the ring meant the American market never really took to him in big numbers apparently, look like a cross between Harry Grebb and Roberto Duran. Needless to say, once he’s involved in what you might call a standard Tyson Fury fight, he’ll stink the place out.

Whyte? He simply isn’t good enough to get people interested over there.

Fair points indeed! AJ has a more than decent chance of finding fans in America. He's exactly the type of HW we (in America) latch onto. We'll see soon enough.

[lillywhite14]

Whyte won’t crack America. Fury stands a better chance with his personality but unfortunately for him, he makes Lennox Lewis, who’s perceived caution in the ring meant the American market never really took to him in big numbers apparently, look like a cross between Harry Grebb and Roberto Duran. Needless to say, once he’s involved in what you might call a standard Tyson Fury fight, he’ll stink the place out.

Whyte? He simply isn’t good enough to get people interested over there.

Fair points indeed! AJ has a more than decent chance of finding fans in America. He's exactly the type of HW we (in America) latch onto. We'll see soon enough.

If Joshua were American he’d be a bit of a star over there I reckon. Olympic gold medal, knocks people out, can be very aggressive etc

[SenorPipino]

Joshua is bland. He needs to turn it up a notch when it comes to personality.

Boxing isn't a big sport here. You need to do something besides fight to get noticed by Americans. Otherwise you're ignored.

Fury understands that.

[oogiebe]

Joshua is bland. He needs to turn it up a notch when it comes to personality.

Boxing isn't a big sport here. You need to do something besides fight to get noticed by Americans. Otherwise you're ignored.

Fury understands that.

AJ has ko'd all but one opponent. Fury may be more exciting out of the ring, but inside the ring Tyson is a boring and uneventful fighter. AJ has that charisma. And just to be frank, I'm a Wilder fan.