Matchroom Boxing’s intriguing four-week Fight Camp experiment will conclude when the final bell sounds at the end of Dillian Whyte’s battle with Alexander Povetkin for the interim WBC heavyweight championship.
With the winner assured by the WBC that he will be next in line for the winner of Tyson Fury’s third battle with Deontay Wilder, this is a golden opportunity for both England’s Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) and Russia’s Povetkin (35-2-1, 24 KOs) to finally ascend to the top of a loaded division after failed attempts in the past.
This will be each man’s first action in 2020 after boxing ground to a halt courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic. And although Whyte added two wins to his resume last year, decisioning Oscar Rivas and Marisuz Wach, “The Body Snatcher” would rather forget 2019 altogether.
“Last year wasn’t great for me, My mind wasn’t right in those fights. It made me put a lot of weight on.
Dillian Whyte
“In my last fight, I weighed around 20 stone. I’ve taken this time to get myself in shape and it’s been good. I knew who I was fighting and what it would take, so with the extra time I got the preparations done.”
If Whyte wants to spend the next few years in the ring with the Furys, Wilders and potentially again with Anthony Joshua, he must overcome a man who has only been defeated by AJ and Wladimir Klitschko. But it doesn’t seem to faze him at all ahead of Saturday’s card.
“The story of my life has been pressure,” he continued. “It’s another thing I have to deal with.
“There’s a bit more pressure than usual because what’s in the future for the winner, but I’m not bothered about what Fury or Wilder are doing. I’m focused on what Povetkin is doing.
“He’s my toughest test so far. He’s probably the most technical heavyweight I’ve fought so far. He’s done it all the way up the ranks — European, Commonwealth and all the way to fighting for world titles.”
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