Eddie Hearn admitted on Sunday he has less time than the prime minister does with Brexit to close a deal on a rematch between his three-belt champion, Anthony Joshua, and the heavyweight with the best left hook in the division, Dillian Whyte, at Wembley in April.
Whyte, stopped in seven rounds by a Joshua uppercut at the O2 Arena in London three Decembers ago, lit up the same ring on Saturday night when he came from behind on two of the three cards to knock Derek Chisora unconscious in the 11th round.
Joshua desperately wants to unify the title by beating the WBC champion Deontay Wilder, who escaped with a draw against Tyson Fury earlier this month. But Hearn revealed later: “I don’t believe that will happen. If it’s 13 April at Wembley, you’d need it on sale [by the] end of January. I think he’s about 80% likely to fight at Wembley. Wilder’s people are not showing a lot of willingness, to be honest. We haven’t got long. We’ll be on the phone to Dillian and AJ in the next week. If there’s potential, we need to move.
“They had a brilliant first fight and there is history. They can do 100,000 at Wembley. If there’s a deal to be done for that fight, there’s a very good chance that will be next – but there are other fights AJ is looking at, there are other fights Dillian is looking at.”
Chief among Joshua’s options is a showdown with Fury, who enhanced his reputation considerably by getting off the floor in the last round against Wilder. A reprise of that bout is also on the cards, promoted by Frank Warren – although Hearn, the Matchroom chief, is not so sure.
Asked if Fury’s connection with his London rival would make a fight with either Whyte or Joshua more or less difficult, he replied: “Is he with Frank? I don’t know. He’s calling me, so I don’t know. Fury has texted me a few times. We spoke a few times. Joshua wants to be undisputed; if he can’t get that, then he looks at Fury and Dillian. But these guys are not lapdogs, like, over the moon to get the fight. They are in position.”
Certainly Whyte was in the perfect place to end his enthralling brawl with Chisora, who led by a point on two cards and trailed by one on the other going into the penultimate round. As they wound up with left hooks, the 34-year-old Finchley warrior was a split-second slower and fell like a chopped oak.
Asked if he had fulfilled his board obligation of a hospital check after being stopped, he smiled behind dark glasses that hid his bruises. “Nah. I don’t need that. We’ll bounce back. It was a great fight, I enjoyed it. No quarter given or taken.”
The winner, four years younger, said of Chisora, who had whipped himself into the condition of his life: “I was setting stuff up, kept moving him around. I knew he’d tire eventually. I could have done him in the first two rounds as well, but longevity is important in this sport. He’s a heavyweight, you have to be smart.
“Everyone loves a knockout, but I thought maybe he wouldn’t get up again. When someone goes down, you worry for him. He’s got family to go home to. He’s a fighting man, he’s not a technician.
“I refer to him as the black Viking. But what a tough man, what a brave man as well, to come back from defeat so many times, and keep rising back to the top. But it’s my time now.”
Chisora, who has reinvented himself by switching from “Dereck” to “Derek” and “Del Boy” to “WAR”, has been an entertaining and dangerous presence in the division for 11 years. He will do well to remain part of the conversation at the highest level, but nobody is going to convince him to quit just yet.
There was a heartwarming result for Charlie Edwards on the undercard as the Epsom flyweight reduced the venue to silence when he dedicated his superb points win over the Nicaraguan WBC world champion Cristofer Rosales to his own ailing mother, Terry, who was ringside in a wheelchair.
“I’ve always been a mummy’s boy,” Edwards smiled later, revealing he will bring his mother to live near him in Sheffield, his new boxing base, as he plots a career he hopes will deliver him big nights and more titles in the United States.
In Manchester on Saturday, the 28-year-old Leeds hero Josh Warrington scored another triumph for relative youth when he outlasted the former world champion, Carl Frampton, three years older, in a featherweight classic. Two cards of 116-112 and one of 116-113 looked fair on the TV replay.
It was only Frampton’s second loss in a distinguished career, but, as with Whyte in London, the moment belongs to the younger man now. He surprised most observers when he ripped the IBF belt away from the Welsh boxing master, Lee Selby, at Elland Road in May, but likely will take his title to more lucrative fields in 2019, against either of the other 9st claimants, Óscar Valdez or Léo Santa Cruz.
Rematches against Selby and Frampton are less likely – although a fight between the two of them would be a good domestic draw.
