BoxRec

"Mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte suing WBC, president confirms"

Mauricio Sulaiman says Dillian Whyte is suing the WBC about his date to fight their heavyweight champion.

The British fighter is the mandatory challenger to Tyson Fury’s WBC title and has officially held that position since last July.

But with then champion Deontay Wilder tied into two fights with Fury, Whyte’s shot at the WBC was repeatedly delayed and eventually pushed back to February 2021.

Speaking about the legal action Whyte had taken, WBC president Sulaiman told Sky Sports: ‘There is a procedure with regards to the date of the mandatory in the heavyweight division.

‘Upon direct advice of WBC legal counsel I am not in position to discuss any further.’

Whyte’s position was complicated by a doping investigation last year, which lead to the WBC suspending his status as mandatory challenger.

The ‘Bodysnatcher’ was cleared of any wrongdoing, but by then Fury and Wilder had booked their rematch and come to terms over a third fight.

The heavyweight rivals will fight again and Fury then intends to take on WBO, WBA (Super) and IBF champion Anthony Joshua in two fights.

Fury’s co-promoter Bob Arum has suggested the WBC make Fury ‘franchise’ champion so he can do away with his obligation to fight the mandatory challengers.

The WBC’s ‘franchise’ champion status is a controversial issue among fans, but Arum thinks it might be a solution to the ongoing problem with Whyte.

‘Fury and Joshua… whether they fight once or twice or whatever, Dillian Whyte can make a big name for himself fighting in the interim and then when he fights the winner he can make a huge payday.

Thoughts?

By the time the WBC’s February 2021 deadline arrives, which Mauricio Sulaiman recently suggested could even be pushed back further, 4½ years would have passed since Dillian Whyte won his first WBC eliminator, 3½ years after he became the WBC’s highest-ranked contender and 20 months after achieving mandatory challenger status.

And for the record, Tyson Fury is contractually-tied to facing Deontay Wilder next, possibly sometime during November or December, whilst having also already agreed terms for two title unification bouts against Anthony Joshua during 2021.

The obvious implication of Fury’s title defence plans is that Whyte won’t be given an opportunity to challenge for the WBC championship until 2022 at the earliest, unless Dillian’s lawsuit is successful or Fury vacates.

He is way overdo since he been played by Wilder and WBC for some years now. He earned his shot.

Fury would have played with him as a warm up btw. In my head.

Paci wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 05:59 He is way overdo since he been played by Wilder and WBC for some years now. He earned his shot.

Fury would have played with him as a warm up btw. In my head.

I agree that Fury beats Whyte, but the fact remains the WBC haven’t enforced their own rules in regard to how often their champions are supposed to perform mandatory title defences.

Tyson Fury hinted last week that he’d be willing to vacate his WBC title, because he has far bigger fish to fry.

And Dillian Whyte being elevated from interim to becoming the proper WBC world heavyweight champion, doesn’t really achieve anything for his career, because fight fans will consider his world title reign as legitimate as Mahmoud Charr’s or Trevor Bryan’s.

So I feel that Dillian Whyte can submit a reasonable legal argument asserting that Mauricio Sulaiman’s actions has adversely affected both his income and career progression.

And to make matters worse, Dillian Whyte has been paying sanctioning fees to the WBC whilst engaging in a seemingly constant stream of GOLD, interim and title eliminators for the last three or four years, but other fighters have been allowed to unfairly jump ahead of him in the title shot queue.

This situation, to me, seems about as unfair as Graciano Rocchigiani's lawsuit that actually bankrupted the WBC.

Although the new Boxrec rankings are terrible, using the top 25 as a rough guide: if Whyte beats Povetkin in his upcoming fight then he would've beaten 5, 9(x2), 12, 14 and 16 in the current Boxrec rankings.

For the record, Wilder has beaten 10, 19 and 22. Fury has beaten 2 and 9(x2). AJ has beaten 5, 6, 7, 12, 15 and 22.

Any argument that Whyte isn't one of the top guys on the heavyweight world scene are ridiculous. Hopefully Whyte gets his title shot in early 2021 because he has both earned it and his record atleast suggests could pose problems.

Enlightened-One wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 06:11 This situation, to me, seems about as unfair as Graciano Rocchigiani's lawsuit that actually bankrupted the WBC.

This would be great. Either Whyte acts in spite and does us all a favour and liquidates a sanctioning body, he could sell it to or merge it with one of the others, or he could have Sulaimon by the balls like Al Haymon seems to. Only other options would be to sell it to someone else or own it himself, any of which would be more preferable to the current WBC hierarchy.

Enlightened-One wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 06:11

Paci wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 05:59 He is way overdo since he been played by Wilder and WBC for some years now. He earned his shot.

Fury would have played with him as a warm up btw. In my head.

I agree that Fury beats Whyte, but the fact remains the WBC haven’t enforced their own rules in regard to how often their champions are supposed to perform mandatory title defences.

Tyson Fury hinted last week that he’d be willing to vacate his WBC title, because he has far bigger fish to fry.

And Dillian Whyte being elevated from interim to becoming the proper WBC world heavyweight champion, doesn’t really achieve anything for his career, because fight fans will consider his world title reign as legitimate as Mahmoud Charr’s or Trevor Bryan’s.

So I feel that Dillian Whyte can submit a reasonable legal argument asserting that Mauricio Sulaiman’s actions has adversely affected both his income and career progression.

And to make matters worse, Dillian Whyte has been paying sanctioning fees to the WBC whilst engaging in a seemingly constant stream of GOLD, interim and title eliminators for the last three or four years, but other fighters have been allowed to unfairly jump ahead of him in the title shot queue.

This situation, to me, seems about as unfair as Graciano Rocchigiani's lawsuit that actually bankrupted the WBC.

The WBC needs to stop being such moneygrabers and stop bending their own rules. If Fury vacants the belt, it is up to him. He'll just get back in my head.

If they go bankrupted and go out of business then well, don't care. They f*ck'd up. Thats it. And the WBC likes to keep it in the bank and always let their favorites get away with breaking their rules. Moneygrabers and beltmakers more or less.

The more I think about it I rate them below the IBF and WBO, still above of WBA. When it comes to making things the "right way". But, they are abite corrupt and do make a claim to holding the legit champ of the div or just agreeing that their is about 3 others. So dumb. Don't care if the WBC gets burned down. Do like their belt. But that is it.

Whyte is the boogieman of the heavyweights.

He lost to AJ, but he is a top tire since he shrugged it off and became even better. With Ruiz doing nothing. I put him just below the 3 top guys for now.

Wilder's handlers avoided him like the plauge and AJ only seems to do a rematch if Whytes hold a belt, Fury just wanna whoop his ass so he don't care about that sh*t. Hope that he gets something down the line.

"Bob Arum EXCLUSIVE: Dillian Whyte should fight Oleksandr Usyk to determine challenger for Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua winner"

Bob Arum has told talkSPORT that Dillian Whyte should forget about a fight with his man Tyson Fury in 2021 and focus on Oleksandr Usyk instead.

The ‘Body Snatcher’ is mandatory challenger for the ‘Gypsy King’, but his title shot is under threat with Fury agreeing financial terms for two bouts against Anthony Joshua next year instead.

When asked if the mandatories would obstruct Fury vs Joshua, Arum told talkSPORT Fight Night: “No. The mandatory situations are being worked out by all the organisations.

“It’s unfair to accelerate mandatories or keep them where they were because of the fact these fighters couldn’t fight for most of this year.

“Dillian Whyte can fight for an ‘interim’ title or whatever makes him happy, and after Joshua and Fury have their two fights–

“It’s probably better if Dillian Whyte fights Usyk to get a real contender [that won't receive their title shot until Summer 2022].

“I think boxing is gonna be totally different after this coronavirus is over.

“People are working together, people wanna make the best fights, they’re not gonna be tied down with mandatories.

“And I know if Dillian Whyte presses for a mandatory with Fury, I’m sure Mauricio [Sulaiman] would make Fury the ‘franchise’ champion, just the way he did with Lomachenko and Canelo.

“Then we don’t have to worry about nonsense mandatories.

“I’m not saying Dillian Whyte’s not a good fighter, he is a good fighter, but again, these are unique circumstances.”

In 2018, the WBC introduced their new rule, upgrading certain big-name world champions to become ‘franchise’ champions.

This designation allows the fighter to have various privileges, including a lack of mandatory challengers.

In the two instances of this happening so far, the existing mandatories have been upgraded to become the regular world champions.

Canelo Alvarez was made ‘franchise’ champion at middleweight and his mandatory Jermall Charlo became the regular champion.

Vasyl Lomachenko was made ‘franchise’ champion at lightweight and his mandatory Devin Haney became the regular champion.

Therefore, the WBC are able to charge sanctioning fees to two fighters in the same weight division, both fighters can claim to be world champions and the star fighter doesn’t have to face his mandatory.

Fook Dillian Whyte .. he has nobody but himself to blame, he had two chance in mandatory with Pulev and Ortiz fight, but tried to go shortcut.

I laugh everytime he is crying about something.

I wish him luck and hope he bankrupts them

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 09:42 I wish him luck and hope he bankrupts them

You are a joke. I'm 101% sure WBC they know their contract amd obligations zillion times more than whyte.

Dillian whyte will go bunkrupt paying lawyers fee and getting sued himself. He can't even read two lines in his own contract, He is complete knucklehead idiot.

Boxtune wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 10:20

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 09:42 I wish him luck and hope he bankrupts them

You are a joke. I'm 101% sure WBC they know their contract amd obligations zillion times more than whyte.

Dillian whyte will go bunkrupt paying lawyers fee and getting sued himself. He is complete idiot.

Rocchigiani ?

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 10:33

Boxtune wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 10:20

You are a joke. I'm 101% sure WBC they know their contract amd obligations zillion times more than whyte.

Dillian whyte will go bunkrupt paying lawyers fee and getting sued himself. He is complete idiot.

Rocchigiani ?

I would hope the wbc has better lawyers than they did back then

Maybe he's going for top "10 contender forever" status like Fres.

They shoulda just made someone franchise champ and it would've handled this

As long as he's been the #1 contender, and the WBC have just ignored it I'm sure he has a case.

Boxtune wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 09:19 Fook Dillian Whyte .. he has nobody but himself to blame, he had two chance in mandatory with Pulev and Ortiz fight, but tried to go shortcut.

I laugh everytime he is crying about something.

Some facts for you to consider...

On the 25th April 2018, the WBC officially ordered the final eliminator between Luis Ortiz and Dillian Whyte.

The Cuban allegedly declined the opportunity to face Dillian Whyte on the 28th July 2018, which was accompanied with a $2.54m purse offer, because he claimed the scheduled fight-date was too soon for him. However, Ortiz actually ended up fighting on that date anyway, when he engaged in the preposterous Razvan Cojanu mismatch.

This assertion was communicated to the media by Eddie Hearn and Dillian Whyte. And I don’t believe this claim has been officially refuted by the Cuban’s team, but even if they had done so, Ortiz's handlers have a proven track record of lying about the financial offers they’ve received (i.e. as per Matchroom’s allegedly “lowball” and “BS” offer for the AJ fight).

Meanwhile, Dillian Whyte had to find an alternative opponent for his 28th July bout, so he chose to face an even better fighter named Joseph Parker (as per ESPN's & The RING's ratings).

Around the same time period Dillian Whyte decided to reject the opportunity to compete in an IBF final eliminator, against Kubrat Pulev, because he was only receiving a 25% purse split to compete on the Bulgarian’s home turf, which equated to a paltry $375K (as per the purse bid won by Epic Sports & Entertainment). The Bulgarian was being paid three times more than the Brit’s sum.

Kubrat Pulev ended up facing Hughie Fury in the IBF’s final eliminator, whereas Dillian Whyte fought Joseph Parker instead, with both the Brit & the Kiwi pocketing slightly more than $1.3m each.

Boxtune wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 10:20

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑15 Jun 2020, 09:42 I wish him luck and hope he bankrupts them

You are a joke. I'm 101% sure WBC they know their contract amd obligations zillion times more than whyte.

Dillian whyte will go bunkrupt paying lawyers fee and getting sued himself. He can't even read two lines in his own contract, He is complete knucklehead idiot.

If Fury is allowed by the WBC to proceed with his current plans to face Wilder next and then Joshua twice during 2021, then he won’t be able to perform a mandatory defence of his WBC title until Summer 2022 at the earliest (assuming Tyson doesn’t become the nonsense "franchise" champion during the interim).

This would result in only two mandatory defences of the WBC world heavyweight being performed over a seven-and-a-half-year time period.

According to the WBC’s own rules, “All WBC champions shall make at least one (1) mandatory defense per year…”

And by the time Summer 2022 arrives, 5½ years would have passed since Dillian Whyte won his first WBC eliminator, more than 4½ after he became the WBC’s highest-ranked contender and three years after achieving mandatory challenger status.

What sort of legal argument could the WBC possibly have to justify that sort of situation, especially when you consider they’ve stripped some of their other champions for failing to perform their mandatories?

I feel that Mauricio Sulaiman is being dishonest about his most recent comments on the Dillian Whyte situation, because he’s claiming that he doesn’t understand what the Brit’s legal threat is hoping to achieve and he also believes the WBC’s position is very clear.

First of all, Sulaiman stated that the mandatory title defence deadline currently imposed on Tyson Fury is February 2021, but the WBC are allowing ‘The Gypsy King’ to face Deontay Wilder during November (or more likely December), making that timescale difficult to achieve.

Sulaiman also didn’t provide commitment about whether the February 2021 deadline will be pushed back or not, simply stating that the WBC will address each weigh class in isolation and will then decide the next course of action based on the impact of the pandemic. That doesn’t mean anything to me.

And finally, Sulaiman said that he doesn’t understand the purpose of Dillian Whyte’s legal threat, but he surely must?

‘The Body Snatcher’ is obviously employing legal means to force the WBC to retain their original February 2021 mandatory defence deadline, preventing them from delaying his title shot by another year, due to Tyson Fury being sanctioned to face Anthony Joshua twice during 2021.

If the WBC allows Fury to face Deontay Wilder towards the end of the year and then engage in two bouts against Anthony Joshua during 2021, then Dillian Whyte won’t receive his title shot any sooner than Summary 2022.

And by that time, 5½ years would have passed since Dillian won his first WBC eliminator, more than 4½ after he became the WBC’s highest-ranked contender and three years after achieving mandatory challenger status.

This would result in only two mandatory defences of the WBC world heavyweight being performed over a seven-and-a-half-year time period.

According to the WBC’s own rules, “All WBC champions shall make at least one (1) mandatory defense per year…”